One of the very best aphorisms in the English language is abbreviated as KISS – ‘keep it simple, stupid’. When the pressure comes on, relax into your core strengths, keep a clear view of the game and make it simple for yourself. For the Springboks, that way of relaxing and making the game simple has always been the scrum.
On both sides of a 24-year flirtation with the handling pyrotechnics of Super Rugby, South African rugby has stayed true to itself, and nothing has really changed since ‘Oom Polla’ Paul Roos sent his famous telegram to the 1937 Springboks. It was one word, repeated thrice: ‘Skrum, skrum, skrum’. You cannot get much simpler than that.
The decisive Test on that tour was played at Eden Park on 25th September 1937, and it still represents the last time the Bokke have beaten the All Blacks at their spiritual home, and the only occasion on which they have won a series in New Zealand. A record 58,000 people were crammed into the ground and the overspill of interest was such that some escaped to the treetops, and others climbed the roofs of houses to get a better view.
Those Springboks were the very best of South Africa. The tour captain Philip Nel was a farmer from Greytown in Zululand and fluent in Zulu language and culture alike, and his openness was embodied on tour as the Jimeloyo-Ji! – a war dance to answer the haka literally and figuratively. It is performed at Nel’s alma mater Maritzburg College in KwaZulu-Natal to this very day.
Nel was Siya Kolisi’s enlightened spiritual doppelganger, a ‘rainbow nation’ skipper ahead of his time. And like Rassie Erasmus’ charges in the present day, those ’37 Boks never stopped innovating. Scrum-half Danie Craven invented the dive-pass but was always one step ahead of the game. At Eden Park he created a try for his team by dummying the dive-pass and serving the ball to flyer Freddy Turner instead for the decisive score of the game.
Most significantly of all, the 1937 tourists introduced the world to the 3-4-1 scrum formation, with the wing forwards packing on the outside hip of the props rather than in the back row, as in the old 3-2-3. At prop they had the brothers Louw, ‘Boy’ and Fanie, and behind them was Ferdie Bergh from Paul Roos Gimnasium school in Stellenbosch, who reputedly trained by scrumming against thick-bodied Baobab and Jackalberry trees.
In between the famous twins was the brains of the scrum operation, 92kg Transvaaler Jan Lotz. As Craven observed admiringly of the man from Krugersdorp, “Jan Lotz would often say as the scrum formed: ‘Wag, Danie – wag, wag, wag.’ [‘Wait, Danie – wait, wait, wait’].
“Before that: “Kom Ferdie, jy druk nie. Philip ek wil meer van jou hê. Fanie, kom nader na my toe,’ [“Come on Ferdie, you aren’t shoving enough. Phillip, I want more from you. Fanie, get in a bit closer’].
“When everything was just so, he would say: ‘Nou’s ons reg.’ [‘Okay, now we’re ready.’]”
The All Black hooker Artie Lambourn ruefully acknowledged the impact of Lotz and his cohorts after the series was over.
“That Springbok pack was different to any other the All Blacks of that era had played against. Its whole game was centred around the scrum, and the forwards were a scrumming machine. They were all big men, and very strong and they were tight as a drum. Jan Lotz was a tremendous hooker, and he had the advantage of a massive shove from behind. They just wore us down in the scrums”.
After the events at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening, the Irish front row will be licking their wounds and thinking many of the same thoughts about newly-crowned world player of the year Malcolm Marx and his mates. By the end of the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, Ireland had no fewer than six front rowers in the touring squad, with Tadhg Furlong, Finlay Bealham, Ronan Kelleher, Dan Sheehan and Andrew Porter all part of the original selection and Tom Clarkson added as injury cover.
After the set-piece mauling they received in Dublin, there would probably be no more than two or three picked if another Lions squad was announced tomorrow. Six Englishmen? By all means. The front row is a sign of times, and a sharp reminder of how England are overtaking Ireland in the fast lane of European rugby.
With recent changes to protection of the receiver, there are now far fewer clean catches and many more knock-ons derived from the aerial battle. And that means more scrums. There was an average of 12.6 scrums per game at the recently-concluded Rugby Championship, but at the Aviva the Springboks had 15 feeds alone. Those set-pieces were resolved as follows.
| Scrums | Clean ball | Penalty advantage | Penalty/pen try | Reset |
| South Africa | 4 | 2 | 5/1 | 3 |
In total, Ireland conceded a massive eight scrum penalties and they were all given up at loosehead – four by starter Porter and four by his replacement Paddy McCarthy. There were five pure penalties, with two others played through to advantage in subsequent play and another to a penalty try. Porter and McCarthy were sin-binned for repeat offences and interchanged with one another four times in the match. They were on and off so often they looked like one of those slick wrestling tag teams from the 1970s.
In this piece back in May, I examined the pros and cons of Porter’s scrum technique and how the negatives of refereeing perception have dogged a glittering career. As ex-England prop Alex Corbisiero commented on X at the time, “Porter has a history/perception of scrummaging on the [inward] angle/poor shape, All Blacks would’ve raised it to refs and then used tactics to go after it”.
The ex-Leinster tighthead Mike Ross added more technical meat to the debate and the Springboks used Ross’ formula to brutal and clinical effect at the Aviva. At times the Ireland scrum was trotting backwards so fast it looked an even chance to end up in the nearby River Dodder.
“[In the RWC 2023 quarter-final] New Zealand tried to create a three on two, and the way they did that was with their loosehead pulling his head outside of Tadhg [Furlong] and trying to slip outside him. And then [tighthead Tyrel] Lomax was turning in and angling across the scrum, trying to create a three on two to leave Porter behind him.”
The tone was set at the very first scrum in the ninth minute.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 23, 2025
The three on two is created by the Springbok tighthead Thomas du Toit setting up on a slight inward angle, to emphasise Porter’s tendency to swing his hips out to the left under pressure. As the scrum develops the Leinster loosehead will be left on the side of the scrum as ‘the Tank’ rolls through the gap between him and Sheehan, while Marx and his loosehead Boan Venter play the two on one against Furlong on the other side. In contrast to the World Cup quarter-final, there is no argument because Porter is going backwards, not forwards.
This is the modern method of scrummaging and it is every bit as impressive as 1937. It is the hooker who decides the direction of travel and Marx has chosen to move over to his left and attack Furlong. It did not get better when the bench entered the fray, it got worse. All 144kg of Wilco Louw replaced Du Toit just before half-time and it prompted a savage introduction to Test-match scrummaging for young McCarthy.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 23, 2025
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 23, 2025
Once referee Matthew Carley’s perception was firmly established, the 50/50 collapses all ran in the South Africa’s favour. They had earned them.
The game leaves Ireland in a precarious state for the Six Nations, and the front row mirrors the conundrum for Andy Farrell’s team as a whole. Their premier tight-heads Furlong and Bealham are 33 and 34 years old respectively, and the perception of Porter’s technique is not improving. Behind those three there is green, unproven promise in the shape of Jack Boyle and McCarthy one side and Clarkson on the other. The average age of the top three is 32, that of the three young musketeers 23. It is as if a whole generation has gone missing in the succession planning.
At the heart of the Springbok scrummaging effort was Marx, who fully deserves his WPOTY award. He has stood up as never before in the absence of Bongi Mbonambi and Jan-Hendrik Wessels, averaging 70 minutes per game over the Rugby Championship and in the matches against France and Ireland. All doubts about the one suspect area of his game – his lineout throwing – have been erased. In Dublin he threw six times to the 15m line or beyond it for a 100% success rate.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 23, 2025
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 23, 2025
In both cases, extreme back ball off Pieter-Steph du Toit enables quick access to the Ireland midfield defence, with the comeback play hitting the nearside edge successfully. But it all starts with the simplicity and accuracy of a 20-metre ‘dart’ into double top at the back of the line.
For all their courage and resilience labouring under the cloud of 18 penalties, four yellow cards and one red on a tumultuous evening, Ireland cannot be happy with either the nature of the loss or the bigger picture of their autumn campaign. The men in green over-competed in the rucks and they were slaughtered at scrum time. The heart was on fire, but the head was nowhere near the top compartment of the fridge.
For South Africa, there can be no higher praise than to underline in bold, they are worthy successors to those 1937 tourists, on and off the field. They embrace diversity rather than reject it, they are unafraid to take risks and innovate, and when all else fails, they have the skrum. If they are looking down from the rugby gods, Uncle Paul and Jan Lotz will be raising a glass, and silently nodding their approval.
