South African rugby coach Peter de Villiers has lobbed a verbal grenade at the All Blacks, accusing them of illegal scrummaging techniques.
His comments come two days after the New Zealand forwards held the upper hand in the scrums while winning the opening Tri-Nations Test in Wellington 19-8.
De Villiers on Monday identified New Zealand loosehead prop Tony Woodcock as the culprit, reports the NZ Herald website.
He accused Woodcock of manipulating the pre-hit routine to ensure the front rows were not stationary.
He said the All Blacks caused the ”walking around of all the scrums by using their loosehead prop to scrum in, and at times when he didn’t scrum in, he just came upâ€.
”That gave them the momentum, to come in around us,” said De Villiers, who expressed surprise that Australian referee Stuart Dickinson did not police that area of the game.
”They were blown for that in the previous games and we were assured the referee would look at that. It didn’t happen.
”They were blown up 21 times in the previous three games [against Ireland and two Tests against England] and they were allowed to play it in this one.”
The South Africans would take it upon themselves to address the issue on the field rather than expect Australian referee Matt Goddard to respond in the return Test in Dunedin on Saturday.
”We just have to become illegal sometimes too,” De Villiers said.
”We will have to look after ourselves.”
De Villiers’ comments are sure to be latched on to by All Blacks coach Graham Henry, who is with his team in Dunedin preparing for the second Test.
”We played it wrong in the [wet and windy] weather out there,” De Villiers said.
”New Zealand were very clinical on the floor, maybe we were caught between the new laws [experimental law variations] and the old laws.
De Villiers said his team’s confidence had not been dented by the loss, which ended their 13-match winning streak.
”We are very positive that we can turn it around. We’ve identified a few areas needing improvement.”
The South Africans are remaining in Wellington until Thursday. – Sapa