{"id":588851,"date":"2026-09-03T12:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/588851\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T12:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:16:20","slug":"all-blacks-legend-why-dave-rennie-is-right-and-rassie-erasmus-is-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/588851\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks legend: Why Dave Rennie is right and Rassie Erasmus is wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former All Blacks number eight Kieran Read has given insight into the scrum battle and believes Dave Rennie may have a point about the Springboks<\/a>\u2019 tactics.<\/p>\n

The ex-loose forward packed down many times during his career, which included facing off against some fearsome South African sides.<\/p>\n

While it was only the end of Read\u2019s playing days that coincided with Rassie Erasmus\u2019<\/a> arrival and the Boks\u2019<\/a> consistent dominance in the set-piece, he believes that they are still using a similar technique.<\/p>\n

Read breaks down scrum battle<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting. Ox (Nche) is the most dominant and the looseheads are always the most dominant; it\u2019s going to look like it\u2019s going that way, but the South Africans have always got a very clever way of shearing in with their tighthead,\u201d he told the GBRANZ podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat allows them to move left and then around you. I\u2019m sure the All Blacks<\/a> are expecting it, they didn\u2019t deal with it in that first Test but [in the second] they dealt with it. If you get our hooker to do the right job on their tighthead, it actually helps our tighthead to scrum straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

This debate has come after Dave Rennie<\/a> accused the Springboks of \u201cwalking around\u201d in the scrum, which led to a furious reaction from Springboks boss Erasmus.<\/p>\n

But Read has suggested that Rennie and the All Blacks may be on the right side of the argument. \u201cYou could look at every scrum and say there are things going on. From a New Zealand point of view, we\u2019re pretty straight scrummagers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africans scrum their own way and that\u2019s slightly on an angle, that\u2019s how they have done it for years and years. They might think they\u2019re going straight. It\u2019s not illegal what they do potentially because you can\u2019t really pick it up but the outcome maybe at the end of it [could be illegal].\u201d<\/p>\n

Read then went into a bit more depth in how he sees the Boks are scrummaging, adding: \u201cThey\u2019re pushing across to the left so their tighthead and hooker are pushing across to the left.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they are trying to do is basically depower our hooker who is the connection point between our scrum, and basically make sure he can\u2019t push. They\u2019re squeezing him and, going there, our tighthead is left a little bit hung out to dry if they get that right. It\u2019s a tactic that has been used, and they are still using that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to say from an All Blacks point of view, they have reviewed last week and did a pretty good job, and even got a little bit of reward at some stages on their own ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks scrum guru rejects All Blacks accusations as he insists they \u2018can\u2019t ever cheat\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Rassie Erasmus\u2019 accusation<\/p>\n

Erasmus also placed the blame for the collapsed scrums at the feet of the All Blacks, but Read disagreed with the Springboks boss\u2019 assessment. \u201cThe ball\u2019s out, the ball\u2019s gone, that\u2019s what refs are looking for,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat you\u2019ve got to look at is the Springboks\u2019 scrum quite high.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re big boys, they\u2019re big bodies. The All Blacks technically want to be lower and get in a great position and that\u2019s where you will find a lot of times where we pancake because sometimes the opposition might not take the hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might be a bit high, the bind might not be strong enough. If one thing\u2019s slightly off, the scrum is going to go down which is unfortunate. The heights are slightly different. They\u2019re bigger so they\u2019re slightly above us. You would say lower is power and better.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we get it right, we should be in a better position being lower. If you look at anything around the game and the maul and the breakdown, the lower person generally wins, the lower body will win. It\u2019s an interesting watch. You\u2019ve got to praise our team for sticking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Kieran Read: \u2018People would say Rassie Erasmus has always lost his head\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks number eight Kieran Read has given insight into the scrum battle and believes Dave Rennie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1463,1464,111,43,139,69,6327,213],"class_list":["post-588851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}