Steven Kitshoff rubbishes All Blacks’ scrum accusations: ‘It’s a cardinal sin in Springbok rugby’
A scrum between the Springboks and All Blacks and an inset of ex-prop Steve Kitshoff.
Steven Kitshoff has hit out at Dave Rennie’s accusation that the Springboks were ‘walking around in the scrums’.
Rennie made the claim that South Africa’s loosehead prop Ox Nche walked around in the set-piece during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series opener and doubled down after his side was defeated in Cape Town.
Those comments weren’t well received by Bok head coach Rassie Erasmus nor scrum guru Daan Human, with the pair both insisting that the Boks’ scrummaging was legal.
Former prop: Springboks weren’t guilty of walking around
Rennie had conversations with World Rugby around the officiating of the scrums, but ultimately admitted defeat, stating that the game’s governing body didn’t agree with their complaints.
The scrum was a hot debate throughout Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, and it hasn’t cooled off yet, particularly after the All Blacks were again penalised for failing to use the brake foot, something that irked assistant coach Neil Barnes.
A double World Cup-winning loosehead prop with the Boks, Kitshoff has defended his former teammates as well as scrum coach Human, stating that walking around in the scrum is viewed as a sin in the set-up.
“I don’t think the Springboks were guilty of that. No, definitely not,” Kitshoff was quoted by Netwerk24 as saying during the launch of his autobiography, Kitsie: Memoir of a Bomb-Squad Bok, on Tuesday.
According to Kitshoff, Human focuses more on the collective power of a scrum than any sort of trickery or dark arts to gain an advantage.
“If you listened to Daan’s press conference (before the third Test), he said he only coaches one way, and that’s to scrum straight. Walking around is a sin in Daan’s eyes,” the ex-front rower explained.
“From a Springbok perspective, when you get penalised for wandering around, there are a lot of factors that come into play. Sometimes the referee can’t see what’s happening on the other side of the scrum. There were a few moments in Baltimore where it was so heated that the referee (Karl Dickson) was ready to penalise the Boks for scrum offences, but luckily the assistant referee intervened.”
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Steven Kitshoff backs up Daan Human’s claim
The remarks that Kitshoff referenced were from Human’s press conference before the Test match in Soweto, where he said: “We always try 100 per cent to do it by the book, that’s the way we have been brought up. I can’t ever cheat or tell the players to walk around – we never work like that.
“I can assure you one thing: we will work even harder in order to be precise in what we’re doing. We always aim for legal, straightforward dominance.”
Having worked with Human from 2019 to 2023, Kitshoff backed up the coach’s claim.
“Walking around in the scrums is a cardinal sin in Springbok rugby,” he said.
“You want to put as much pressure on your opponents as possible through the scrum and get them on the back foot. We’ve seen some big moments in the set scrums: push-over tries, penalty tries, penalties being awarded left and right, but walking around the scrums is simply not allowed in the Springbok environment.”
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The 83-Test prop was also part of the Springboks team that dropped to seventh in the World Rugby rankings before Erasmus took charge of the team in 2018 and led the side to World Cup glory 18 months later.
He believes that the current All Blacks are in a similar rebuilding position under Rennie.
“When you look at the All Blacks throughout the series, there are a lot of similarities to where the Boks were in 2017 and 2018: a team under new management needing to rebuild,” he added.
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