Mitchell fingers Koch not Poiete

The scrum battle was also influential in the match between the Springboks and Argentina in Durban, where Bok tighthead Vincent Koch was heavily penalised by French referee Romain Poite.

Koch’s elbow hit the ground and he seemed to be the first player to go down. He should straighten up and learn to take his loosehead out. The non-negotiables for effective tight forward play are: keep shoulders below hips, elbows pointing down, and find a way to build pressure earlier through your bind.

While we could debate aspects of Argentina’s scrum legality ad nauseam, the bottom line is that they are extremely proficient at the set-piece. The Pumas work together as a collective and transfer plenty of weight through their hooker, Agustin Creevy.

In contrast, the Springboks’ scrum site is too high and they need to learn to sink their knees into a favourable position: when you go low, you can put your weight through and endure that pressure for longer. However, once you’re up, there is no way you can go back down. The knee angles of the Springbok back five are actually quite inconsistent, whereas the Argentinian scrum has appeared totally in sync in terms of its endurance post-engagement.

The question that needs to be asked is whether scrummaging will be more important at the World Cup than catch-and-pass rugby, especially if there is a northern hemisphere referee in charge.

Southern hemisphere referees by and large regard the scrum set-piece as more of a starting point and, as such, only award penalties when it is clear and obvious.

Northern referees reward teams that can achieve scrum dominance because they consider it a sign of positional weakness.

Yes Vincent Koch took a hammering, but Romain Poite’s performance in Durban was far worse, says Tank Lanning.

I can see what happened to Koch....the same thing that happened when he played Ben Robinson. He got hammered. Is that permanent? Is he always going to be a potential liability in big test scrums? Probably.

The evidence about our backup tightheads is not confined to the Bargie tests. We had a long S15 and two other tests before last week.

What emerged is that Koch tends to crack when real power is applied. Marcel pops out of the scrum and then pushes from the belly. And Malherbe is either going forward if he can dominate his opponent or is a big risk to fall flat.

Not one of these three have figured out how to stay functional in a scrum under pressure.

Say Perv. There are products for older chaps like you who "wet themselves". No need to skulk at home. You can avoid embarrassment with an adult nappie.

Freddie I don't think Matfield and Brussouw have been on together for many years....today will be a test. But Matfield scrums behind the loosehead, almost inevitably. Last year the Pervert was saying our tighthead problems against the Bargies was Victor's fault....until I pointed this out to him.....he never corrected the record.

I give up with you guys. It was obvious before the test Koch was going to be the target. We should have been prepared. What happened was we never had good "talking points" on the field...and Koch was in trouble in every scrum. He was simply not able to take the pressure. If he plays for us at the WC every NH loosehead will be licking their chops to have a crack at him.

He looks like a prop, plays well in the loose, has scrummed well within a dominant Stormers scrum....but was simply unable to deal with the Bargies. Accept it and move on....I happened to be right, but I take no pleasure in it.