All Blacks must solve scrum problems after Springboks defeat, says Barnes

New Zealand assistant coach Neil Barnes admits the All Blacks need to improve their scrum after South Africa’s set-piece dominance in the Greatest Rivalry Series, although he again questioned whether all of the penalties awarded to the Springboks were justified.

Barnes described the South African scrum as “pretty damn dominant” after the second Test in Soweto, but suggested New Zealand had not always received a fair outcome from the officials.

The scrum was a major talking point before the match, with the All Blacks expressing the view that the Springboks were not scrummaging legally and were walking around during the set piece.

Speaking to Martin Devlin of DSPN after the game, Barnes said South Africa’s scrum had become a reliable source of penalties, while making clear that he did not believe every decision was “legit”.

“You can’t hide from it. Their set piece is pretty damn dominant, and they get a gravy train of penalties from it,” Barnes said.

“I’m not going to say they’re all legit, but at the end of the day we’re going to change the perception for the officials as well, so that we get a fair rub of the green.”

Despite those comments, Barnes accepted that New Zealand had to take responsibility for finding an answer to South Africa’s strength at scrum time.

“Yeah, we’re going to be solution based here. They’re good at what they do, and we’re going to counter it. The rest of our game, like you said, the scoreboard is tight,” Barnes noted.

“So yeah, not a lot in it. We’re not going to beat ourselves up too much, but at the moment it stinks. We’ve come in second to this crew, and we tried bloody hard to get the right result for our country, and it hurts.”

The All Blacks’ frustration came after they were again beaten by the Springboks, with South Africa retaining their standing as the leading side in World Rugby’s rankings while New Zealand slipped further behind.

Although New Zealand lost only one lineout on Saturday, South Africa had also disrupted their opponents’ throw at Cape Town. Eben Etzebeth won three lineouts from New Zealand possession there, and the visitors responded in Soweto by frequently targeting their No 2 jumper.

That approach, however, does not provide the most effective attacking platform for the All Blacks.

New Zealand therefore face the same challenges again when Baltimore brings further pressure at both scrum and lineout. The onus will be on the All Blacks to improve those areas rather than continue to focus on complaints about the opposition.

The result also included a significant moment in what was described as the Calabash Test, with the All Blacks left to reflect on the incident that helped shape the match. Their overall performance remained close on the scoreboard, but Barnes acknowledged that New Zealand had come second to South Africa despite making a determined effort to secure the result for their country.

For the All Blacks, the immediate task is clear: they must find practical solutions to a Springboks set piece that has repeatedly troubled them during the series.