Wallabies star: Springboks have revolutionised the scrum and use of the bench
Wallabies prop Angus Bell in action against South Africa and an inset of him at Ulster.
Wallabies star Angus Bell believes that the Springboks have revolutionised the use of the bench in the modern game as well as the scrum.
The 25-year-old loosehead prop is gearing up for the 2026 international season with Australia after enjoying a playing sabbatical stint at Irish club Ulster for the 2025/26 European season.
Bell helped the side reach the Challenge Cup Final, ultimately falling to a defeat to Montpellier, and finished ninth overall in the URC standings – missing out on a play-off position.
His stint with Ulster meant that he was exposed to opposition from South Africa, Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with the front-rower stating that he learnt a lot from his time in Belfast.
Super Rugby Pacific versus United Rugby Championship
Bell believes that the game is largely being played in the same way globally at the moment, but there is a real difference in the importance placed on the scrum.
“I need to talk from a scrum perspective, because I feel like everywhere around the planet, it’s pretty similar in the shape and speed of the game,” he told reporters.
“It’s very tidy in Super Rugby, whereas in the URC, you’ve got South Africa, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. There are different pitches every week, so I guess that was part of the challenge, and part of the exciting factor about it is that I didn’t have to wait for the internationals to sort of get that picture. Internationals, it is very tidy too, so it was just a really cool experience to be able to verse people that I wouldn’t have versed if I didn’t make that decision to go overseas.
“So it was definitely heaps of learnings in there, and as a squad, the whole of Ulster we were pretty young front-row, pretty young forward pack, so to hopefully experience new things with them and try to get everyone on the same page. It was an awesome experience as someone who was actually one of the older players in the forward pack.”
South Africa revolutionising the scrum
Commenting on the South Africans in particular, Bell says that the Springboks and SA clubs have revolutionised the scrums and the use of benches in the modern game. The Bomb Squad has become synonymous with Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks, and the URC teams have largely copied the template with 6-2 bench splits and a reliance on forward dominance.
“Every time you come up against a South African scrum, to sort of not manage but to attack those sort of teams,” Bell said.
“Again, that’s why South African rugby has been so strong; they have sort of revolutionised the use of bench front-rowers and the scrum as like a real rock and foundation of where they build their game around – their maul too.
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“It was a cool experience [playing the South Africans]; they’re obviously the tougher games. Our last game against the South African team was against the Stormers, and we drew with them on the bell – they scored in the corner with a penalty try. So, it was just awesome just to experience something different, but it’s the week-to-week challenges that are really different, similar to what Test match rugby is: you versus different nations week-to-week.
“It’s always just shifting your mentality to get ready for those different challenges and different front-rowers and who they’re going to pick. It was definitely different.”
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New experience
Another new experience for the Wallabies prop was the different grounds that he played on, with Ulster’s home surface featuring a 4G pitch. It’s a common occurrence in the northern hemisphere because of the weather and something that Bell had to adjust to.
“At my first scrum session at Ulster, I had to really change my shape because you can’t be too extended or anything,” he said.
“So it definitely is different, but because of the weather in Ulster, it’s probably a good idea they had a 4G pitch. It’s not too different, to be honest.
“We swapped in and out of mud pitches to grass to 4G throughout the year; you kind of get used to it, so in the end I got used to it, which was good.”
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