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Last week i mentioned that i would like to do an in depth of Australia, ironically i was going to share some views that would back up why i thought Australia were a very good team, despite two early losses to S.A. in the Tri-Nations, and then they went to prove that to us by an emphatic and clinical victory over the Boks on the weekend here in Brisbane.
But i have rather decided to do that at a later stage as a wrap up of where i believe Australia and New Zealand are at the moment and i will share some really interesting game statistics that i am sure many of you were not aware of.
Instead today i would like to briefly chat about a topic i have been emailed on regularly and asked to discuss, and that is John Smit at tighthead.
Firstly let me say that I have read many supposedly knowledgeable journalists, and frighteningly, have also read some views from an ex international coach, who is acclaimed as a scrum guru here in Australia, and i could NOT disagree enough with their in-factual, personal and biased views about John, his ability at tighthead and how the Springbok scrum is an Achilles heel.
Interestingly, John played prop at school and at his early days in provincial rugby, he also was used very successfully at his French club Clermont in the very tough scrum environment of the French Top 14, so tighthead is certainly not something he decided to “have a bash at” in order for himself to still be considered to play for South Africa, in fact he was asked to play there by the coaching staff because we had lost C.J.van der Linde and B.J. Botha to the North, and John was seen, due to his fantastic form at Clermont, as a more than able to fill those shoes. To also start to mention his other qualities as a rugby player and a leader would require another whole blog topic, so we will just concentrate on his ability at scrum time.
Now a few weeks ago i wrote about “Rugby Romantics” when we were discussing the kicking game, and in our job as coaches, it is vitally important that we are process driven and do not get caught up in the emotions of an incident that occurs in a game where we lose sight of the ultimate objective of what we are attempting to achieve.Now I say this because the ultimate objective of the scrum, in the modern game, is to provide quality ball for the team to be able to use effectively to launch a play. Yes I also do believe the scrum is an area where one team can gain a physical physiological edge on your opponents but ultimately and bluntly once the ball is either in the 8’s hands or the 9 has passed it effectively, the scrum is over. So the ultimate objective for a team and its coaches is to asses how effectively, if at all, a team can get to play off effective scrum ball, and in turn that would indirectly lead us to judge the effect of the scrum. To that end i would like to share some scrum statistics i had leading into the last Test between the Wallabies and Boks.
Australia had had 47 scrums in the 3 games they had played, in those 47 scrums they had 14 re sets, which is 30%. Remarkably they only got to launch an effective play off 17 of there scrums which is 36%. In South Africa’s case we had had 54 scrums in the first 3 games. The Boks had 5 re-sets which was 9% and incredibly, the Boks were able to launch effective plays off 39 of those scrums which constitutes a very acceptable 72%. These are facts, hard undebatable facts, these are not my emotive views, or a personal attack or defence toward or in favour of anyone, as i have witnessed recently towards South Africa’s scrums and in particular John Smit.
As a coach we need to present facts to players and a team in order for them to improve, or if an aspect of ones game is not up to standard, then,I suppose like any good doctor, we need to fix the cause and not the symptom.
Now i am also not totally blinkered and naive, and please, i am not needing to defend John or the Boks, i believe their are definitely areas of the Boks game where they can certainly improve, and scrums is certainly one, but i don’t feel that the specific scale of the criticism toward the scrum is based on facts and evidence,which as coaches, is all we can and should be focused on. I assume that a lot of the criticism has possibly come from what we all saw in the test in Brisbane, and in the test in Perth when the talented Ben Robinson caught John on the hit in 3 scrums, and was able to get underneath him, and in those scrums, yes, Australia had the upper hand. It looked dramatic, as John was lifted into the air and his head popped out of the scrum, and in fact in the game on the weekend he was actually penalised. Yes, this did not look good, but this is what the short talented Robinson’s strategy was, to attempt to walk around John, get underneath him and then scrum up on him and hence catching him on the angle, fair play to him, but in the other 27 scrums we had in the 2 tests, that was not necessarily the case and that ploy certainly did not work.
John is a big man, he weighs 122 kg is 1,85cm and is a powerful specimen, but as the ex springbok tighthead Cobus Visagie wrote in a recent interview he did when asked about John, he said that he thought John was doing very well but possibly needed to remember that on every single scrum he needed to get low in the knees, hence getting his body position lower and to then take the engagement from that position, so he cannot get caught when he comes up against shorter looseheads. A quality constructive criticism that we will both take on board and certainly look to focus and improve
In the world of rugby it seems that the experts also do have selected short term memory loss, however I choose not to forget how the scrums went for South Africa in the recent British and Irish Lions series, possibly i can remind some of the experts. In the first test in Durban the Boks did nothing short of demolishing the Lions, and as i have already explained, benefited by receiving 3 penalties and a turnover, again, that is the direct result of those 4 scrums. That is all we can concern ourselves with. In fact in that very same test the Boks also had a “huge” scrum against the Lions, but the Lions got the ball away effectively and really Ugo Monye should have scored if it not were fro the brilliance of Jean de Villiers dislodging the ball, so again I state that particular scrum meant nothing because of what resulted from it.
Now in the current Tri-Nations and particularly against Australia, I can well remember the left hand scrum in Perth where John, and i might add the rest of his teamates (b.t.w their are also 7 other men in a scrum who have an equally important role!!) were able to help him get a fantastic right shoulder that led to Bryan Habana’s match winning try under the poles. I am also reminded of the great solid midfield scrum in the same test just earlier that led to Jaques Fourie’s untouched try under the poles, to start the rot. Also, it springs to mind how good the Boks defensive scrum was against the Aussies this last weekend that led to Fourie du Preez turning the ball over out of Will Genia’s hands, and I could go on reminding you of all the many other scrums, that led to a more than solid base where our kickers were able to clear us out of our 22 or were able to launch our aerial assault that has returned such great dividends for the Boks.
Finally friends, the scrum is an incredibly intricate machine, of incredibly powerful forces working in very many ways and will every now and then breakdown. In the Boks case, and in particular John’s, yes, they can most definitely improve, as can our defence and other aspects of our game. The Boks can also become a lot more consistent at scrum time, particularly on their own ball,most definitely, but i hope i have been able to go a short way to show that it is not costing the Boks games and in fact has on many occasions been a very good platform for South Africa to launch effective plays from, considering we have been able to score 6 tries this season to date from the launch off scrums. It still remains an aspect of the team that can definitely improve, as i have said, but South Africa’s great captain, John Smit is doing a superb job, and is most definitely getting better every game, just look at the facts.
Until we chat again all the best
GG
Good to see him back to his old ways.
