Boks out to taste Wallaby meat

2006-07-11 07:55

Brisbane - The Springboks on Monday night stressed they would show no mercy to the battered Australian pack in Saturday Tri-Nations Test in Brisbane.

When asked how often his monster pack would target the Wallabies up front, South African coach Jake White grinned and replied: "As often as possible."

A wily and often mischievous coach, White enjoys playing mind games, but this time he knows he has a trump card that could well win him the Suncorp stadium Test.

After the Wallabies scrum was again shown up as second rate by the All Blacks in Christchurch during the Tri-Nations opener last Saturday, White believes the Springboks, who for decades have prided themselves on their scrummaging prowess, could do the same.

"The All Blacks have a very strong front row with Carl Hayman, Keven Mealamu and Tony Woodcock, and with Chris Jack packing in on the tight-head side... so it is very experienced," White said.

"Obviously we would like to replicate that. We're not sure if we have the same amount of power up front. But the nice thing about the Super 14 is that a lot of our blokes have played against the guys who are in the Wallabies team."

While the Springboks have arrived in Brisbane with several established forwards missing, including fearsome second-rower Bakkies Botha, they will still boast a quality pack, including Os du Randt, John Smit, Eddie Andrews, Victor Matfield and Joe van Niekerk.

Wallabies coach John Connolly doesn't have to be convinced of that. While he anticipated the Australian scrum would struggle against the All Blacks, he still appeared stunned by how easily his pack buckled.

For Connolly, New Zealand provided a brutal reality check regarding the problems Australia still have up front. Connolly is also being reminded of this by many of his closest allies.

His long-time coaching colleague at the Queensland Reds and good friend, former Wallabies captain Andrew Slack, wrote in his New Zealand Herald newspaper column: "After viewing the video of the game a couple of million times, as is his wont, [the coach] may well come up with those two words, dumb and inexperienced, as the main reasons why his side didn't make it a closer run thing.

"Of course, they'll never rise to the higher leagues without experiences like Saturday night, but a back-pedalling scrum is like the chicken pox in a grade three classroom. Sooner or later it's going to affect everybody. Scrum woes can often create lineout woes, breakdown woes and brain explosion woes."

At least there was some form of forward relief for the Wallabies in Brisbane, when their largest prop, Rodney Blake, returned to the training field after being absent for several weeks with an ankle injury.

If the 130kg Blake, known as 'Rodzilla', can prove his fitness at a training session on Tuesday, he will be picked at tight-head. Connolly said that he would make a decision on Blake, but had been encouraged by the Reds prop's involvement at training.

- Rugby Heaven