Bernard Jackman: Where the Springboks will look to ‘bully’ Ireland
Bernard Jackman believes the Springboks will target the Irish set-pieces.
Bernard Jackman believes that the Springboks will look to “bully” Ireland in the highly-anticipated clash at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday – while making a stunning claim about the scrum.
The former Ireland hooker is expecting Rassie Erasmus’ side to stick to their traditional strengths when the two Test heavyweights collide on Saturday.
Springboks to target Irish scrum
Since Erasmus returned to South Africa from Ireland in 2018, the Springboks‘ scrum has become a focal point of their success. The set-piece played a pivotal role in their back-to-back World Cup wins and a series victory over the British and Irish Lions.
Jackman, a respected pundit, predicts that once again the Springboks will look to flex their scrummaging prowess in the series as they look to replicate the Bulls’ dominance over the Leinster pack in the United Rugby Championship semi-final.
However, he adds that Ireland’s scrum will be a different beast than Leinster’s despite largely the same pack lining up in green as the one that did service against the Bulls.
“The scrum for sure, based on the Bulls-Leinster match, which was mostly four-fifths of an Ireland front-five playing that game,” Jackman said when asked where South Africa would target Ireland on the RTE Rugby Podcast.
But Jackman followed that with a stunning claim that the Boks’ best possible scrummaging front-row has not been selected for the opening game.
“I do think the Bulls’ props are better scrummagers than even what the Springboks have, and that’s no slight on the Boks – they are obviously excellent scrummagers,” he said.
“The reason the Bulls’ props aren’t in the Boks’ squad isn’t because of what they do in the scrum but around the field.”
Ox Nche and Frans Malherbe will start the opener with Vincent Koch on the bench, along with Bulls prop Gerhard Steenekamp earning his second Test cap, but tighthead Wilco Louw has been overlooked.
Different Irish scrum
But the former hooker adds that Ireland will have been hard at work to give themselves a chance of nullifying the Boks’ threat with “safer tactics” compared to what Leinster employed.
“It’s been a big ten days for John Fogarty [Ireland’s scrum coach] in trying to get those players back to scrummaging his way, which is probably a safer style and less likely to get exposed than how Leinster scrummage,” he added.
“Fogarty is a disciple of Greg Feek [ex-Ireland scrum coach], which obviously worked well with Joe Schmidt, where Ireland had a high success rate on their own ball and were clean with referees rarely giving away penalties and got exposed and Leinster are different.”
Jackman predicts that South Africa will be all in on the set-pieces after successfully putting the Irish lineout under the cosh during the two sides’ last meeting at the World Cup last year.
“The scrums is definitely an area where they will target Ireland, and they will want to go after the lineout too,” Jackman explained.
“The lineout is a key part of Ireland’s attack, and the Springboks have recently succeeded in disrupting it.
“They will also go to the air as the kicking will be very interesting, particularly after we saw Willie le Roux expose Leinster, but that is not really how Ireland will defend; they are not nearly as narrow.
“Then, they will be physical and want to bully Ireland with their physicality.”
