All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has confirmed he has spoken to World Rugby about the scrum after his side conceded a number of penalties in that area against South Africa last week. The two rugby superpowers meet again in a pivotal second Test in Cape Town on Saturday.
Penalty count a concern
Despite being under pressure for much of the match, New Zealand turned things around in the second half to win 33-16 in Johannesburg. However, Rennie knows his side cannot afford to give away so many scrum penalties when they face the Springboks again.
While the All Blacks struggled to combat South Africa's power at the set-piece, they did win a pivotal penalty at scrum-time in the second half, with the hosts penalised for failing to drive straight.
World Rugby talks
Ahead of the second showdown, Rennie admitted speaking to rugby's governing body to seek clarity on the scrum battle and raise issues with the Springboks' tactics.
“We struggled to get go-forward, so we need to be a lot better around that area,” he said, addressing last Saturday's win. “Discipline-wise, we gave away way too many soft penalties, especially early in the game, which is disappointing because it’s something we’d spoken about; you give them an easy entry into your 22. So that needs to be better.”
“I think scrum-wise, obviously we’ve spoken with World Rugby around a couple of issues from our point of view. And so we think, scrum-wise, we’ll be a lot better, and that was a massive in for them last week. They are elements we need to be better at.”
Springboks scrum under scrutiny
Raising questions over the South African scrum, Rennie continued: “The expectation is our scrum will be a lot better. We think if they're forced to scrum square, not allowed to step sideways and walk around us, then we'll be able to stay in front of that and be able to get footy going off that.
“I think our energy and our scramble – we held them up over the line a couple of times, obviously Malcolm (Marx) lost the ball going over for one – they had plenty of time in our 22, but there was plenty of energy and heart and we need more of that.”
Pivotal Cape Town clash
This weekend's meeting in Cape Town is pivotal in the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series, with the Springboks needing a victory to have any chance of becoming overall series champions. Rennie is braced for Rassie Erasmus' side to be much improved but warns his team can also step up their performance.
“We’re aware of the potential bounce-back,” said the All Blacks boss. “Obviously, they’ll be really disappointed with last weekend, and there’s obviously been a lot of talk around how they bounced back last year. We’re well aware that the Springboks at their best are tough to beat anywhere.
“We’ve talked a lot about us being better. We think we can be a lot better than we were last weekend. So that’s the key: we’ve got to be able to lift our level. We know they’re going to be better, but we don’t want to focus totally on what South Africa are going to bring. We want to focus on what we can bring.”
