South Africa coach Jake White says the Wallabies still have problems with their scrum and he wants a fair contest in Saturday’s Tri-Nations rugby Test in Sydney.
White says he plans to speak with New Zealand referee Paul Honiss before the Test to ensure what he calls a ”fair” scrum contest against the Australians.
White praised the Wallabies, describing them as a ”World Cup force” following their 20-15 upset win over New Zealand in Melbourne last Saturday.
But when asked by Australian reporters whether Australia had solved their scrum problems he claimed the Wallabies were pushing the rules to the limit.
”I don’t think so, I think that is one area that I really want to talk to the referee about,” he said.
”I thought [referee] Marius Jonker was outstanding the way he refereed the scrum [in the weekend’s match].
”I think the scrum for me was a non-issue, there weren’t scrums; every scrum was a short-arm or a penalty.
”That is something that concerns me. To be fair, I think the Australians seem to be doing something which is very different from all the other teams.
”Their front row goes in first and they get a later delayed push from the five guys behind them which I don’t quite think is the right way you should be scrummaging.”
The Wallabies scrum has been under scrutiny since their much-publicised disintegration against England at Twickenham in 2005.
There were again signs of some cracks against the imposing All Blacks front row of Carl Hayman, Anton Oliver and Tony Woodcock last weekend.
”The All Blacks at times got on top of the scrum … there was one time when [Richie] McCaw picked up the ball at the side of the scrum going backwards and nearly scored,” White said.
”That was one of the times where it had a huge impact on the game, had he scored then the match would have been over, so as I said the scrum is very important to us and something we pride ourselves on it.
”We have got a big pack of forwards and I don’t want it to be stop-start — all I want is a fair contest.” — AFP