Eddie Jones: Springboks win shows World Rugby are ‘trying to take the scrum out of the game’
Springboks scrum against Argentina and Japan head coach Eddie Jones.
Eddie Jones has claimed that the game’s bigwigs are attempting to reduce the impact of the scrum after watching the Springboks’ victory over Argentina on Saturday.
The set-piece has been a key weapon for South Africa over the past few years and it has been vital in them winning back-to-back Rugby World Cups.
Since their triumph in 2023, World Rugby tweaked the laws by taking away the scrum option from a free-kick, an amendment the Boks claimed was deliberately targeting them.
Last month Jones voiced his frustration over the situation, stating that referees and officials are under instruction from their bosses to limit the scrum’s influence.
The Japan head coach has already called on the governing body to fix the issue but, having watched the most recent round of the Rugby Championship, the 65-year-old went a step further and suggested they could be trying to sabotage the scrum.
Jones’ frustration
“That first [Springboks] scrum, if that’s not a penalty… he (the referee) says you’ve got to go up both sides, but it looked like they were going up both sides – the only thing that didn’t go up was the turf in the ground,” Jones said on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“That gives you an indication of how they’re trying to referee the scrum, they’re trying to take the scrum out of the game. Whether it be overtly or not, they’re trying to take the influence of the scrum out of the game.”
South Africa struggled to gain dominance in the set-piece in the first half of their 67-30 triumph over Argentina, with tighthead Thomas du Toit being penalised on occasions, before they managed to get some reward in the second period.
Those first-half scrum issues ultimately did not matter as the Springboks managed to play some spellbinding rugby in the second period to secure a comfortable win.
Their backline was in sparkling form as they ran in six tries after the interval, but Jones observed that it wasn’t necessarily their skills with ball in hand that set up that success.
Just like they did against the All Blacks two weeks earlier, the Boks cut the opposition defence apart, but the former England and Wallabies boss felt it was the kicking game which made the difference.
Springboks’ kicking game
“Their two best attacking games have come on the back of their best kicking games,” he said. “One of the most consistent winning metrics, and these data analytics guys have got the algorithm for everything and they can predict close to 99.9 percent of the Tests, is kicking metres, by a mile.
“You look at South Africa, the last two Tests particularly, they’ve kicked to run and they’ve been brilliant in doing it.”
The Springboks have racked up two big wins in a row and go into the final round of the Rugby Championship at the top of the table, but one thing no side has achieved in the competition this year is consistency.
New Zealand reside in second having beaten the Wallabies 33-24 at Eden Park, but three teams remain in the hunt for the title.
“It will be interesting – there was one close win and one big win – to see whether teams can back it up and double up because that hasn’t been the case in the Rugby Championship, it seems to go win-loss, win-loss, so that will be something to have a look for,” Jones added.
