Springboks coach Mzwandile Stick has hit out at Australia for the uncontested scrums in round two of the Rugby Championship while hailing Argentina for staying in the fight.
The clash between the Springboks and Wallabies in Perth was marred by uncontested scrums in the second half of the match after Australia lost three props to injuries.
South Africa had dominated the set-piece in the first game between the two nations but were denied that dominance in the second match because of the injuries to Wallaby players.
According to reports, SA Rugby made a formal request to World Rugby to investigate Australia’s injuries that led to uncontested scrums but the Springboks coaches were sceptical over the validity of the injuries.
Scrum debacle
Joe Schmidt hit back at reports and stated that World Rugby told the Wallabies that there was nothing that they felt was untoward.
He also argued that they too were hampered by the injuries in the front row as they were able to effectively defend the Boks’ mauls.
“For us, in the end, we conceded three maul tries and we didn’t have our big men to combat those mauls so it’s not like anything that we wanted to have happen,” he said.
“But player welfare is paramount and when players are injured, particularly those two head injuries we got in the second-half, it’s really important that the protocols for head injury assessments are followed.
“Both players [Slipper and Alaalatoa] failed their HIA 2 and their HIA 3 as well. As far as I know, there has been no formal inquiry made to World Rugby, certainly nothing that World Rugby have come back to us with and nothing that they have said that they felt was untoward.”
Stick hails Pumas
Stick revisited the events in Perth ahead of the Springboks’ final game of the Rugby Championship against Argentina.
He did so when praising the Pumas who didn’t do anything ‘funny’ in order to avoid the scrum battle when the two sides faced off in South America, even after Ox Nche out-scrummed Joel Sclavi in the first set-piece of the match forcing the tighthead to pop out of the scrum.
“If you look at the scrum, we had them at the first scrum when one of the props popped out of the scrum but they stayed in the fight,” he said ahead of the rematch in Nelspruit.
“They didn’t try anything funny by making changes and go to uncontested scrums, that’s one thing that I respect about them.
“They managed to take us up front and handle us in that game and hopefully tomorrow again we’ll see more scrums and the crowd can also be entertained because the set pieces are part of our game.
“I remember that game against Australia where in the second half we didn’t see a contest in the scrums, that’s not what the supporters want to see, so hopefully things will go well again and we will be able to see a contest for 80 minutes in set pieces.”
Argentina’s discpline
Stick also praised Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi who has led his side to victories over New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in the tournament.
It is the first time that the Pumas have beaten all three of their Southern Hemisphere rivals in the same edition of the Rugby Championship with their discipline notably playing a crucial role in that.
Argentina are the only team yet to receive a red or yellow card in the competition this year and have conceded the fewest penalties (50) of the four teams. The Pumas are yet to receive a card in a Test match since Contepomi has taken over and are currently on a run of 12 Tests without a card – the last time they recorded a longer such run was 20 match span from November 2017 to September 2019.
“We must give credit to Argentina, Contepomi understands their DNA as a legend of the game in Argentina and the world,” Stick said.
“I think he is pressing the right buttons with them and for them to apply pressure to opposition teams and being disciplined where in the past their discipline was not at its best if you look at some of the guys’ records.
“For them to have a clean sheet at the moment where they don’t have a yellow card – you must give them credit for that.”
