Familiar scrum ambush waiting for Boks

SUPERSPORT

As the Springboks march on to Edinburgh for their second tour game against a buoyant Scotland, what waits for them is a very familiar foe with the potential to upset their plans of forward dominance in the test match on Saturday.

Former French prop forward Pieter de Villiers, who served as the Springboks scrum coach under Heyneke Meyer and for a while under Rassie Erasmus, has galvanised the Scottish scrum into a potential weapon that will meet their toughest test on Saturday against the Bok front row.

What makes the contest even spicier is that De Villiers has worked with coach Jacques Nienaber and Erasmus and knows their way of thinking inside out, and knows the Bok front rows probably better than any opposition coach in the international game.

And given Scotland’s performance in dismantling the Australian scrum on Sunday, they will be a big threat to the Bok dominance this coming weekend.

With Zander Fagerson putting in a dominant performance alongside the South African born duo of Pierre Schoeman and Ollie Kebble, the Scots earned five penalties against the Wallaby scrum and made the set-piece a nightmare for the Australians as they earned their third consecutive victory against them.

Add to this Gregor Townsend’s unfinished business in being the backline coach of a blunt attacking side in the British and Irish Lions tour which played a brand of rugby so foreign to his instincts and it is clear the Boks face a very tricky fixture on tour.

Scotland have momentum as well, having walloped Tonga and will be on a high after their win over the Aussies, and will be gunning for the Bok scrum.

Even Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has been warning that the Boks won’t be facing a Scottish side that would normally be considered an easier game on a tour like this.

"I think the tour is going to get tougher. People are looking at Scotland and they think it's going to be an easy game. I analysed their Tonga game and they have a couple of South Africans in their team who would understand how we do things. Duhan and Pierre are guys I have coached so I know their quality, so we really need to get our stuff sorted out. Pieter de Villiers was with us for quite some time and he'll have some information, so we need to be sharp,” Nienaber said.

De Villiers is the joker in the Scottish pack and his sudden departure from the Bok management setup was not expected.

Given his role at Scotland it won’t be surprising if he comes up with a few aces for the Scottish props to try against the Bok pack that has been so dominant in world rugby this year.

But the Boks will have been warned and will need to be ready.