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SYDNEY - South Africa coach Jake White believes the Wallabies still have major deficiencies in their scrum and plans on exploiting the problem area in Saturday night's Tri-Nations rugby test in Sydney.
White is no stranger to mind games and says he is looking at having a chat
with New Zealand referee Paul Honiss this week to ensure there is a "fair" scrum contest at Telstra Stadium.
The charismatic coach lavished praise on the Wallabies, saying they had proved they were a "World Cup force" following their 20-15 upset win over New Zealand in Melbourne on Saturday.
But he was less kind when asked if Australia had solved their scrum problems and insinuated the Wallabies were pushing the rules to the limit.
"I don't think so, I think that is one area that I really want to talk to the referee about," he said.
"I thought (referee) Marius Jonker was outstanding the way he refereed the scrum (in the weekend's match).
"I think the scrum for me was a non-issue, there wasn't scrums, every scrum was a short arm or a penalty.
"That is something that concerns me. To be fair I think the Australians, they seem to be doing something which is very different from all the other teams.
"Their front row goes in first and they get a later delayed push from the five guys behind them which I don't quite think is the right way you should be scrummaging."
The Wallabies scrum has been constantly under the spotlight following their infamous meltdown against England at Twickenham in 2005.
There were again signs of some cracks opening up against the All Blacks imposing front row of Carl Hayman, Anton Oliver and Tony Woodcock in Melbourne.
"The All Blacks at times got on top of the scrum ... there was one time when (Richie) McCaw picked up the ball at the side of the scrum going backwards and nearly scored," he said.
"That was one of the times where it had a huge impact on the game, had he scored then the match would have been over, so as I said the scrum is very important to us and something we pride ourselves on it.
"We have got a big pack of forwards and I don't want it to be stop start, all I want is a fair contest."
The Springboks have traditionally put huge importance on their scrummaging, which they have seen as being a key to their physical style of play.
White again dismissed criticism of his second-string squad, comparing the decision to the Australian cricket team opting to rest key players before their World Cup earlier this year.
- AAP
