NO SCRUM, NO win. The Springboks have a habit of reminding teams of this harsh truth. The last World Cup final in 2019 was a case in point as they took England apart at the set-piece.
It’s set to be a key area once again tomorrow night at Stade de France as Ireland take on the South Africans. Both sides are hoping that referee Ben O’Keeffe sees dominance from their scrum.
When it comes to this particular match-up, Ireland are the form team. Last November in Dublin, the Irish scrum won three penalties to the Springboks’ one.
So as they prepare for another brutal battle at scrum time, Ireland can take confidence from that performance.
“It’s just their power, it’s the DNA of their game,” says Ireland loosehead prop Andrew Porter of the South African scrum.
“They’re one of those power-based teams. They look at the scrum for penalties and they look to get territory off that but they’re incredible scrummagers all across the board. Even on the bench, they’ve a great outfit there.
“But we’ve seen what we can do the last time we played them.
“We have definitely improved in what we can do in our scrum. I think in all facets of the game, we’ve definitely improved.
“I probably should do more analysis of other teams but I like to focus more on ourselves and just based on that, I think we’ve definitely improved and we’re well capable of taking anything that they can throw at us.
“When we went against the world champions that day, we took a lot of encouragement.”
It’s worth remembering that Tadhg Furlong had to go off injured at half time of that game in Dublin last autumn, with Finlay Bealham sent on. Back then, there were still doubts in some quarters about the Connacht man’s ability at the very highest level but he answered them resoundingly and hasn’t let up since.
Tomorrow, Porter and Furlong start along with hooker Rónan Kelleher, who is renowned as a good scrummager, while Dave Kilcoyne, Dan Sheehan, and Bealham provide back-up from the bench.
They will go toe-to-toe with the South African starting front row of Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi, and Frans Malherbe and the Bomb Squad members Ox Nche, Deon Fourie, and Trevor Nyakane.
Porter does point out that it’s not just the props and hookers who decide what happens in the scrums.
“Everyone has to be on their game on the day,” says the 27-year-old. “If one person’s off, everything can change and it can be a disaster, so that’s what we’ve been going after this whole pre-season and the warm-up games and out first two pool games as well.
“We’ve had a complete buy-in from all of the forwards and even a few of the backs have come into a few of the scrum sessions if they need to… but yeah, we take huge encouragement from our previous performances.”
While he’ll be busy at the scrum, lineout, and maul, there is much more to Porter than just the set-piece. He’s a ball-carrier in the narrow channels and also possesses the kind of slick handling skills that Ireland demand from their forwards.
The 56-times-capped prop has also got a huge engine, regularly going for more than 70 minutes in position where that’s very rare. Porter even did the full 80 minutes earlier this year against Scotland when injuries forced Ireland’s hand.
“I suppose for every game you go out there you have to be prepared to go the distance if you are asked to,” says the Leinster man.
“I find myself sometimes looking over when I get a bit tired at times wondering when they are going to bring someone on. Yeah, for the most part, personally I’m mentally trying to prepare myself for the full 80 minutes.
“I try to pride myself on my fitness, I did a lot with the coaches with the S&C in pre-season to try and get myself to a level that I’m personally happy with
“But obviously every game is different, it has its own demands so this weekend will be a good test of that.”
Porter is unlikely to be found wanting if he’s asked to do another long shift at the coalface for Ireland.