{"id":921980,"date":"2026-10-09T15:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/921980\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T15:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:28:09","slug":"ex-ireland-coachs-verdict-on-world-rugbys-striking-feature-problem-after-leinster-taken-to-the-woodshed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/921980\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Ireland coach\u2019s verdict on World Rugby\u2019s \u2018striking feature\u2019 problem after Leinster \u2018taken to the woodshed\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Ireland<\/a> coach Eddie O\u2019Sullivan has given his verdict on seeing Leinster\u2019s all-international front row getting taken to the cleaners last weekend in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Andy Farrell\u2019s Ireland are set to host the Springboks at Dublin\u2019s Aviva Stadium on November 21, a year after he despairingly watched his team\u2019s scrum get demolished.<\/p>\n

The Irish conceded six scrum penalties, a penalty try and had two props, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy, yellow-carded for set-piece infringements, and concern over a possible repeat has arisen following the troubling performance of the Leinster front row last Saturday in Durban.<\/p>\n

Despite fielding a seasoned Test-level front row in Porter, Ronan Kelleher and Thomas Clarkson, Leinster conceded eight scrum penalties, two free-kicks and had Clarkson yellow carded in their 26-20 defeat to a Sharks team with Thomas du Toit and Vincent Koch as its starting props and Ox Nche on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are almost unbeatable\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The damage inflicted had Irish fans wondering what Ireland head coach Farrell would have thought about the situation ahead of next month\u2019s Test match versus the double reigning world champions, and it was a question posed to ex-Ireland boss Eddie O\u2019Sullivan on the Indo Sport<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s a worry for Andy Farrell, but to be fair, it\u2019s a worry for every other country,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan began. \u201cThe South African scrum and the South African power game at the moment are dominating international rugby. They are almost unbeatable in a sense that they have this much power.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, any one day over 80 minutes, you can get them maybe if you get your ducks in a row and things go well for you, but they are so hard to beat. Looking at the New Zealand series, those four games, and I was at the game in Baltimore, New Zealand just couldn\u2019t live with them physically.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New Zealand scrum was under immense pressure all through all four Tests to the point where they really just tried to get the ball in and out of the scrum, so this is not an Irish problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa are incredibly dominant at the moment, and they\u2019re dominant in their own kind of genre because South Africa has always been a country that has relied on physical domination in rugby. That is their kind of MO; that\u2019s how they play.<\/p>\n

URC, Round Three: Predictions, teams, kick-off times, how to watch and referee appointments<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are historically big physical teams, and they take you to the woodshed physically and then they wear you out, and Springboks\u2019 scrum is just frightening to watch. It is a problem for Ireland looking down in the autumn, but it\u2019s also a problem for World Rugby because they are starting to dominate the game based on their physicality and their power.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan went on to point out that it wasn\u2019t only Leinster<\/a> who had a troubled Irish scrum in last weekend\u2019s United Rugby Championship, referencing the difficulty encountered by Connacht in their match at Benetton.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big problem for everybody, and you saw another taste now at the provincial level when they\u2019re taking Leinster to the woodshed in the scrum<\/a>. It\u2019s interesting; Connacht got beaten up in the scrum as well Friday night by Benetton.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, going back to our problem, it\u2019s a worry certainly for Andy Farrell that the scrum is getting beaten so badly. But I suppose that\u2019s just South Africa<\/a>. When it comes to other teams, how would we fare against them?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in much better shape against other teams, but everyone\u2019s in trouble against South Africa, and there\u2019s no sign of it changing, just the way they\u2019re producing players down there. They have the depth, they have the power, they have the strength and their game is currently based on this capacity to overpower you up front or in the carry.<\/p>\n

World Rugby outlaws controversial tackle which almost ended Springbok\u2019s career after South Africa coach\u2019s request<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then they have a sprinkling of players across their line. Every South African team is a sprinkling of players who are lightning quick, with brilliant feet and if they get an edge, they will skin you.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fairly simple formula but incredibly effective and extremely difficult to contain. You might do it on one day, but if you do it three or four days in a row, it\u2019s a hell of a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan went on to suggest that France were perhaps the only country that could challenge South Africa at the scrum. \u201cIt\u2019s a power game, and there\u2019s not much you can do about it, and they do put huge pride in their set-piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral years ago, Argentina were the team when it came to the scrum\u2026 Now France are probably one of the only teams that can probably put it up to South Africa, but again that\u2019s a debate at the moment because South Africa have jumped a level again now; you can see it across the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you do much about it? When you play South Africa, one of the most important things is to keep the scrums to a minimum. The problem with scrummaging against a team who are dominant, it\u2019s not the end of the world on your ball because you\u2019re in control of the possession, so you put it in and you get it out quickly, and you saw New Zealand do that all the time in that four-match series, in and out, gone.<\/p>\n

Tony Brown\u2019s \u2018three key things\u2019 for attacking success as Springboks coach reveals \u2018mindset challenge\u2019 for South African stars<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the only thing you could do. You saw Connacht do it against Benetton and it\u2019s the only solution. You get the ball in and out in the scrum as quickly as you can. You hope by the time your team is going backwards, the number eight\u2019s gone with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the problem arises when they have the put-in because they decide when the ball comes out, and that\u2019s when you\u2019re really in trouble because that scrum is going to be as long as they decide it\u2019s going to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd again, going back to the Connacht game, they won that game based on surviving six scrums on the goal line in that middle part of the second half and they broke out and got a breakaway try to win the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scrum is still a very dominant aspect of the game. World Rugby have tried to change the laws to try to control it. A lot of it\u2019s been around safety, which is fine, but the engagement now, they can\u2019t do any more with it. They can\u2019t change the engagement anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe referees are telling you when to join, when to go in; there\u2019s no big hit anymore. World Rugby has tried to depower the scrum as much as they can. They have tried to get less scrums in the game.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, there are no scrums on a free kick anymore. They changed the law on being held up over the goal line. It\u2019s not a scrum anymore; it\u2019s a goal line dropout.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorld Rugby are worried about the dominance of the scrum in the game. And for that reason, every law change is almost taking scrums out of the game, there should be less and less scrums.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe final thing I\u2019d say on it is the other problem they have now is the length of time it takes to put down the scrum. Like you could be watching 30 to 45 seconds for a scrum to engage and then there\u2019s a reset, so it\u2019s eating up playing time out of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the scrum is a problem probably for everybody except South Africa at the moment, but they can\u2019t change it anymore. But looking at the World Cup, South Africa are going to build their game for another World Cup around the scrum and the set-piece, and that\u2019s the power they have. That\u2019s not going to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, as I said at the beginning, it\u2019s not just an Irish problem; it\u2019s a problem for everybody when it comes to South Africa. They just have that power and nobody at the moment can really match them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe on the day France can. France have always been an incredibly powerful scrum side, but really, you have to say that this is in some ways a problem for World Rugby because they don\u2019t want the scrum to dominate the game, and when you get to that, where the scrum is dominating the game, it\u2019s not good for the game.<\/p>\n

NZ Rugby chief\u2019s verdict on South Africa\u2019s possible Super Rugby return: \u2018They are pretty bullish\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe other problem with it is those scrum penalties totally become a yellow card, so it\u2019s not just you\u2019re giving up penalties; suddenly you\u2019re down to 14 men.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scrum is really a very important part of the game, which is what World Rugby always wanted \u2013 that\u2019s the irony of it. They never wanted to depower the scrum; they never wanted to take the scrum out of the game. It\u2019s a striking feature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re just a Martian that flew in for the day and you saw a game of rugby, the most striking feature of the game of rugby is the scrum. Two sets of eight go together, the ball is fed in and you can compete for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat defines rugby is the scrum in many, many ways, even though it\u2019s a multi-faceted game, but World Rugby have been trying to manage that as it doesn\u2019t dominate the game, but it does become front and centre if one or two teams in the world can dominate teams to the point where it changes the complexion of the game dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Brian O\u2019Driscoll reveals Ciaran Frawley \u2018request\u2019 which contradicts \u2018narrative\u2019 after high-profile Leinster exit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ireland coach Eddie O\u2019Sullivan has given his verdict on seeing Leinster\u2019s all-international front row getting taken to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,489780,818,1182,26779,6265,44,760,1183,85,134441],"class_list":["post-921980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-eddie-o","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-ireland","tag-leinster","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}