All Blacks legends blame lack of scrums for ‘throwing us off our game’
All Blacks on a scrum machine ahead of Argentina Test and legends Mils Muliaina and Sir John Kirwan.
All Blacks greats Sir John Kirwan and Mils Muliaina felt that Scott Robertson’s men were hampered by a lack of scrums in the defeat to Argentina.
New Zealand have been renowned for their skills and creativity over the years, but they have struggled for rhythm so far in 2024.
Robertson’s team were shut down effectively by England’s defence in their opening two Tests of the campaign, with the scrum proving to be the key point of difference.
The two starting props, Ethan de Groot and Tyrel Lomax, have elevated their games to a world-class standard over the past couple of seasons, while Ofa Tu’ungafasi and Fletcher Newell have been excellent off the bench this year.
Thanks to those front-rowers – as well as the efforts of playmaker Beauden Barrett – they managed to eke out two tight victories over the Red Rose.
Perfect start ended
After also overcoming Fiji, the All Blacks went into the Rugby Championship three from three under Robertson and they were expected to make it four in a row.
However, they were met by an impressive Argentina outfit, who managed to avoid getting into a scrum battle – an area which has been a weakness over recent years – and emerge 38-30 triumphant.
“We spoke about it, we need to take them on up front. There wasn’t a scrum for 60 minutes, so how you really start them crying is you take them on in the scrum and you smash them in the scrum,” Kirwan said on The Breakdown.
“You win a couple of scrum penalties and you kick down [field], and that just did not happen. I thought that was a huge blow to us and it threw us off our game.”
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Kirwan has been a critic of World Rugby’s laws, believing that they suited the set-piece-orientated style that won the Springboks the past two Rugby World Cups.
The global governing body have since looked to speed up the game, trying to put emphasis on attacking play, and certainly Saturday’s encounter was a fast-paced and open affair.
That, in years gone by, may have suited the All Blacks, but Argentina managed to keep pace with the hosts and, according to cap centurion Muliaina, they ‘surprised’ Robertson’s outfit.
‘Caught be surprise’
“That’s where I thought it caught the All Blacks by surprise; that they were actually going to run things back, switch play and try to get out to the wider channels,” Muliaina said.
“But you’ve also got to try and sustain that. There was previously an issue of starting like that and then falling off a little bit, and for the All Blacks to ramp things up, but the Argentinians didn’t. They stuck to it and they almost reversed the game plan the All Blacks were perhaps expecting.”
Kirwan agreed with Muliaina and felt that Los Pumas’ game-plan put New Zealand off their stride, especially defensively.
“Our defensive line slows up because all of a sudden what you’ve been practising is not in front of you,” he said. “Look at how passive our defensive line is. We’re not rushing off the line with confidence because they’ve thrown something at us.
“That’s what you want to do to the opposition early. All that stuff you practice – get off the line, smash them back across the advantage line – goes out of the window.
“When we talk about the All Blacks, sometimes against South Africa, you’ve got to do that kicking game to hold up that defensive line, but they did it to us very early.”
Back to the scrum
With Argentina attacking well and putting the All Blacks into reverse, Muliaina felt that was when they needed to revert to a tighter game and use the set-piece as a weapon.
There were no scrums for 60 minutes and, when the two sets of forwards eventually did pack down in the latter stages of the contest, the visitors arguably had their better operators on the field.
“That’s when you come back to your set-piece. The All Blacks were backpedalling but there’s another chance for them to try and get themselves back in the game. Let’s go to the set-piece.” Muliaina added.
“If there’s a scrum, we can dominate physically to try and slow some of that momentum down that the Argentinians [had], but there were no scrums.”
