"This a clear violation of our rights as a World Champions. It's an infringement on our constitutional rights. It's outrageous, egregious, preposterous."
If there was one positive we Wallaby supporters can take from the weekend’s loss, it was the performance of our much maligned (by referees in particular) scrum. Whilst the rest of our play was directionless, ill-disciplined and mistake-ridden, our scrum was class.
They look so well drilled at the moment. You can see them working as a pack. Remembering that Nathan Sharpe is packing behind Benn Robinson. This the Nathan Sharpe that many argued was more to blame for our previous scrum wows than Al Baxter.
So well done to the Wallaby scrum coach, Pato Noriega, who must take a lot of the credit (now that Foley has moved on).
What makes the scrum highlights more appealing is that (1) this was the scrum that dominated the British and Irish Lions and (2) a lot of our dominance came in the second half with rookies Alexander (at tighthead prop) and Polata-Nau.
Before you watch the clips, it might be worthwhile to refresh your memories with some of the comments from the Springbok coach pre-test:
‘‘They are much more negative in the scrums from the All Blacks,’’ de Villiers told South African media. ‘‘They will go to ground if they want to and bring that negativity in.
”They know that they are busy losing, but they will try to milk a penalty from the other side.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR4JUAPGP5E[/youtube] Share on Facebook
Tags: al baxter, benn robinson, british and irish lions, nathan sharpe, youtube
The artist formerly known as "Noddy" grew up in a golden age of Queensland Rugby and wakes up every morning hoping that THAT day will be the start of a new one. I like to reminisce. Follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/RugbyReg. 
I was waiting for this. Brilliant.
I wish we had of taken another scrum at 8mins 20secs. Just to destroy smit. He’s a pretender.
I loved watching this…the chat..”scrum, scrum, scrum”.. “squeeze and now”…
And i’m a back.
Fantastic job, great to see Aus having the skill to 1/4 turn and give space and time to the backs.
top work mate. equal to the showing of the piggies.
I am so glad your scrum went well. Why don’t you go watch the scoreboard.
spammer
Well said. Can only be an Ausie. You played dirty, made profesional fouls all over the place and then don’t get sited for Matt’s “tackle” on Fourie, but your scrums went well so all is fine.
Looking forward to the Bokke handing your asses to you in your own backyard.
Apologies for the Spammer.
I’m certainly looking forward to how the Boks play away from home, has long been a weakness that they’ll want to get over.
There’s a video on the cards coming tomorrow, hope to see you back here then.
Our scrum was the biggest positive for us from the game. We could have done a lineout lowlights package, but splicing 9 lost throws end to end could have been a tad demorilising on a wallabies blog!
We’ve copped a lot of crap for a long time about our scrum, and this week they really handed it to the Boks.
Seriously, could there be any better way to spend 9 minutes and 41 seconds of your life?
Great job Noddy & B&S.
Probably not.
Cut them some slack guys.
Its been a trying tri-nations so far for them.
All videos of this match should be destroyed for all eternity.
More kicking than a game of AFL… First time I can remember switching away from a test to watch… gasp… the cricket! And that was when we were up 10-9. I checked back occasionally just to see more kicks or scrum resets.
ELV’s need to be scrapped asap and some new laws to give the attacking team more time and go forward. Absolutely boring penalty, scrum reset and kicking fest.
Ahh, the dark arts.
Beautiful stuff. Makes me wish I was born shorter, stronger, fatter, and uglier. Go Robbo.
My views on the Green Frog are well known and not worth repeating here.
Noddy
Your analysis is excellent. Thanks mate, keep up the good work.
Its good to see alright. I’d like to see a corresponding dominance on the scoreboard. I’d also like to see us hold our formation and keep driving through them to really sap their spirit.
Watch Du Plessis in the second last scrum on the footage being driven back on his knees. That can’t be comfortable.
good going aussies well done, you can have the upper hand in the scrums by all means and when you get totally outclassed in the contact point, line out and at the breakdown…is it really that significant?
as a Bok fan, all our concerns are some minor problems in the front row. In terms of everything else regarding forward play, our biggest worry is whether to select Heinrich Brussow or Schalk Burger at 6…
You’re seriously considering dropping Broussow? Good idea, do that for Perth.. please
not many South African fans want him dropped, the guy has been a revelation! most of us think Burger should be used as an impact substitute.
despite whatever he’s achieved in his career, he has played very little rugby this season and needs game time off the wood to shake off rust, gain confidence and reach the same high-octane levels we know he is capable of…and when that happens (it is a “when” not an “if”), then the real selection headache begins
I could see Burger taking Danie Roussow’s spot, form permitting. Then he’d cover both 6 and 7 from the bench. At 6’4″ and 110kg he’s the size of an Aussie/Kiwi blindside anyway…
drop drop drop drop drop – just when you thought that crazy quota nigger was in the cupboard!
waiting for the clips on the lineouts please !!!!???
There were no lineouts, or penalty goals. Only scrums, tries and left-footed drop goals.
hahaha…ur such a shamble man…
u aussies are almost as bad as the english hey…but then again u guys lost to the english so it definitely makes u worse…:-)…the only time the english won us was when they won the bid to host the RWC in 2015…hehehe
The wallabies scrum was good but the back line’s 2 tries were much better.
Any footage on that.
lmao…ic u guys are looking for some positives in the loss hey :-)…
just looking for footage of this and footage of that, u probably need to look for the foot-up-ur-* …hehehe…
@ Daniel, you certainly are an expert at that, foot-up-ur :-). Do you have any footage of you doing that… he he he….
The last time I checked I was on a rugby blog. You need to go look for the ” I have nothing better to do with my time” blog.
You might just get a foot- up -ur
on that one…he he he….
Damn what a pathetic excuse of an article. Take the loss with dignity guys .Take it on the chin mates and hope your side does better next time. Cheers Kiwibok
The only thing that was pathetic and without dignity was the much self-vaunted saffa scrum, as demonstrated above.
Looks like we’ve taken apart both your scrums recently JaapieBro.
You just keep taking it on the chin eh?
I truly believe the Wallabies should be paying more attention to their backline than their scrums. I thought the backs operated pretty smoothly (when they didn’t decide to chuck it inside their own half). They looked quite creative and incisive at times.
Even without the talismanic Mortlock – who some Aussie fans are under rating – he is still a lethal prospect and I am delighted to see him out of the remainder of the tri nations because in rugby experience wins you games more than talent does and he has pretty much been there and done it all.
Your lads outscored us 2-1 and that hurt more than our poor/your great showing at scrumtime because our scrummaging woes are nothing new but personally I would love to see us be more clinical and score more tries. I am not saying though that clinicality must equal flamboyance. We do play with enough flair but we just need to learn how to be more clinical.
The fact the Aussies had no answer at the breakdowns doesnt make up for the fact that we have shown a lack of clinicality in our backs over the last 3 weeks, its not overly concerning but it does leave me slightly perturbed, considering the players we have at our disposal.
Great comment Mweezey
“What makes the scrum highlights more appealing is that (1) this was the scrum that dominated the British and Irish Lions”
do you really believe that we dominated the Lions at this phase at any other time over the 3 games than the first 50 minutes of the first test?
As a former front rower myself I really enjoyed watching those clips but the rules regarding scrum sets must be pretty obtuse because referees don’t show the slightest consistency in applying them.
Bring back the days when front rows could do anything to each other like lift opposing props off the ground and be applauded for it not penalised for it.
Robson, I agree that the referreeing has been all over the map on calling infringements on front rowers. I think the wallabys were really hard done by in the first game at Eden Park-the Kiwis were not even getting a proper bind, but Baxter kept getting pinged.
Love the Jackie Giles quote. Classy.
Jackie has an uncanny resemblence to someone …
Good to see Brussow’s family passed the hat around to buy up advertising to show their support of him…
“Die Burger”
A bit harsh, but seems to have worked.
“Die Burger” is actually “The Burger” in German, a strong show of comaraderie – least that’s what they are telling Herr Schalk…
Die Burger is an Afrikaans newspaper, I think it’s based in Cape Town. It’s pronounced ‘d burga’, as opposed to DIE SCHALK.
Still, it must be tough for him with all the death threats around his homeground.
Why wouldn’t we try and find the positives? We all know they made bad decisions. We all know there were brain snaps and people not playing that well. And yeah, some folk should be benched, definitely.
What’s the problem with finding positives? Gagger is one of the least one-eyed blokes around.
Once again, there’s some half-breed trolls lurking, dropping their excrement. Stinks.
I totally agree with you on this Stu. Would all the Black and Boks fans prefer postings entitled “Oh my god we suck, I’m just going to quit watching rugby forever” Or maybe “Here are all the ways we are terrible, complete with video highlights” Go to your own websites. I don’t think any wallaby fan thinks anything other than a very good Bok team caused that loss. And anyone who has ever played forward knows that destroying an opposing scrum is one of the most satisfying things ever. So we will enjoy that. And we will enjoy it when we do it in Perth as well.
Fat Cat has to be climbing in the prop world rankings right now. If he wasn’t an Aussie some over-excited announcer would be calling him the best prop in the world (you know how those announcers can get). And since he doesn’t seem to matter who is locking, hooking or proping, this could be the foundation of a very good, long term scrum. Now to fix the lineouts, backs and most importantly, the breakdowns. Still…small steps….
In my biased opinion, Fat Cat is THE loose-head going around.
But I’ve only watched Super 14 and Southern Hemi mostly.
Young fella from Reds (Laurie Weekes?) also seems to be doing alright, although not sure if he’s TH.
i would almost say that the fact he is an aussie and isn’t constantly pinged in the scrums (like the fuse) means he’s even better than he first appears. you’d think every little thing he did would be targeted as well, and he’s come through pretty clean while showing the goods.
Hmm…i think the Australian scrum did very well….but you have to look at the context of what the Australians did at times, to what the Safas were trying to achieve too.
Fat cat quite often gets under Smit, sure, however most of this is due to Boks ball and Smit probably targeting the Aus hooker. On oppositon ball, the aim would probably be to angle out onto the LH and have the Bok Hooker and Aus hooker matched up, Bok LH in tighter righ under the TH. So as much as i can appreciate the periodic dominance of each scrum…in the whole context of things i think its getting a bit blown up.
Baxter has come a long way though, le fuse certainly did do a trmemndous job. And Alexander as well, very strong, probably lacked some technique but very strong.
Saffers ragging on us for trying to rake something from the ashes should remember that
1) the wallabies scrum has been the joke of international rugby for years — a joke Saffers and kiwis especially never get tired of rehashing.
2) there was a lot of build up pre-match about what the bok scrum was gonna do to the wallaby scrum.
So if we take delight in finally having a scrum which edges over the “parity” line you shouldn’t be surprised. It’s been a rare joy.