The Australian scrumming jinx

Australia lost the 03 WC because the Poms were able to extract a steady flow of penalties off the Aussie scrum. They still can't scrum in spite of the hopes for their  new front row....Sio was buried by WP Nel against Scotland, a game they luckily escaped. But on Saturday the scrum creaked again, especially when notorious scrummager Slipper was on the park.
Will they fix this fatal flaw before the next WC?

 there scrum was a massive flaw but i have to admit they have come on in leaps and bounds. 
cheika has just been in the mix for over a year now and the leap they have made is massive so i do think there skillsets are there but they need to develop there props a bit more.

Yeah, some credit must go to Cheika for what he has done to this Wallaby side in such a short time. Their scrum is not the best in the World, but they are improving quickly, and anyway, they always seem to manage their scrum weakness one way or the other. It is going to be interesting going forward to see how things pan out for the three Southern powers! AB's will be losing a lot of their old guard, but there is never a shortage of talent to fill the gaps. Wallabies are definitely on the up, and we also have a good crop of young talent coming through. Also, one can't write off the Argies who are also making massive strides! I pitty the North! 

 bok i pity the boks as we are lacking behind the development stakes. the argies in my view leaped ahead of us due to there adoption of a bit more expansive style of play
one cannot underestimate graham henry's influence in the pumas development and if we are not careful we will be the wooden spooners if the saru does not address the lacking areas

 We have two complications in trying to introduce an improved game of rugby - 
*  the older players who could not change their set way and could not be toaught any new skills; and
*   the foreign based players who are coached by their clubs to play a restricted brand of rugby suitable to NH conditions.
The Springboks under Meyer became an Old Boys Club - where the OB's could not be taught anything new and  their skill set could not change - they played the rugby they were initially taught - eg the passing of the ball to forwards and neutralising completely the backline -= as was the case in the past WC.
The second issue is even more complicated - of the 31 players in the recent squad 8 was overseas-based players where coaching is aimed at anything but expansive.  Most of those came from SA franchises where restricted rugby was played in any event.    To coach an old dog new tricks is impossible and their impact on the squad is totally negative.
I cannot see things changing because of the present situation.  Either like NZ and Argentina we must ban totally th usage of foreign based players - or restrict those players to the absolute minimum.  Of the 8 such players 6 was at best useless who should not have been in the squad in any event.  and even the other two could have been disposed of.   
Unless there is a total change in the environment in which the team operates - we are going to go back further and further.   Th departure of the old has-beens and never-has-beens may help though. .        

Oz has a lot of potential for sure. Perhaps they are best positioned for make this most improvement if you take the fact that Cheika has only been their coach for a year.
ABs have an exciting period coming up as a flow of young players will now step up or players like Fekitoa and Nandalo will become front line players or at least we will see more of them.
Boks have their challenges, keep in mind they lost by 2 points. I think they will get better as they develop their backs (faf de clerc; pollard; de allande; Kriel; with wee willie properly coached). In forwards, Lood & Etzebeth; plus improvement of the props will. With the retirement from test rugby of Burger other loosies will get a chance (you need a link man in the loose forwards). So plenty of potential for Bok improvement.
Argies, they are looking good & will get better.
RC will be a good comp again boys!!

 i agree 100% mike
your posts has more reason in them than anything i have seen from saru in the past 10 years.
not sure what your day job is but i think you should consider a career change into rugby administration.

 CM
Thanks for the compliment - but I am too old for a further job - I am a pensioner - but would tke a job as admnistrative advisor for SARU.  

 please type your cv 
your country needs you lol
you might be a pensioner but you are far more intune to the game than a lot of other younger people that are in rugby.....

 Maybe you guys need to adopt the plan that allowed Gitaue back in the team ,minimum 50 tests I think it was plus some other things tossed in there .

Rubbish, there was nothing in the scrums, what game were you watching Moz