The Wallabies have accused South African strongman BJ Botha of cheating in scrums ahead of Saturday’s Tri-Nations rugby Test in Cape Town, reports said.
Australian team forwards coach Michael Foley put English referee Wayne Barnes on notice for the Tri-Nations opener at Newlands by claiming the Coastal Sharks tighthead Botha illegally angles in to isolate the hooker at scrum time.
”I can’t believe that he gets away with it,” Foley told Thursday’s the Australian newspaper.
”It’s obvious. It’s every scrum. His ball. Our ball. He never ever packs square and I just don’t understand how, game in, game out, referees ignore it.
”Botha is a powerful scrummager and he’s not a bad scrummager. We’re not saying that for a minute and we’re not saying they’re a bad scrum. We’re just saying: are the laws that you have to pack square? And if they are, is he packing square? My answer to that question is: never. And therefore there should be something done about it,” Foley said.
”A tighthead packing across the scrum like that is at a distinct advantage. But at the moment the referees are turning a blind eye to it.”
Foley says he has no doubts that the South African press’ opinion of the Wallabies’ front row as ”powder-puffs” is shared by the Springboks themselves.
”We don’t believe the Springboks respect us,” Foley said. ”Just the body language at certain times gives it away.”
Loosehead Matt Dunning insists the Wallabies’ pack, only 12kg lighter than the Boks’ overall but 15kg down in the front row alone, will answer the challenge if a critical scrum close to the tryline is set.
”That’s what they breed off,” Dunning told the newspaper.
”If you knock that out, maybe you take a bit out of them. We’ve got to defend their maul and scrum well. If we do, it will be massive for us and hopefully means we win the game,” he said. – Sapa-AFP