‘If you don’t like scrums, go watch rugby league,’ says Boks’ Ox

Powerful Springbok front ranker Ox Nche had a scathing assessment for people advocating to depower the scrum in rugby union, saying that if they didn’t like it they should go and watch rugby league instead.

Nche was speaking to reporters ahead of the Boks’ opening Rugby Championship clash against the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday (6.45am SA time), and was asked about the various new laws being introduced, including the 30 second scrum rule.

However, he first had something to say to the fans and pundits who have been critical of the Springboks’ scrum dominance over the years and want to see less of it.

“You have a lot of people talking about the scrum and I’ve said it in the past, people who don’t want scrums should just go and watch rugby league. There are no scrums there (in rugby league) otherwise it is pretty similar (to rugby union),” explained Nche.

Talking about the new 30 second scrum rule, which says that teams must be ready for a scrum within 30 seconds of the mark being called by the referee, Nche said it would not take much getting used to as it is something the team have been doing in training for a while now.

No problem

“It shouldn’t be a problem. We’ve looked at our scrums even before these slight law changes. It shouldn’t be a problem for us. We just have to adapt a bit. We have spoken about it and made plans for it,” said Nche.

“I think it’s a fair adaptation which makes the scrums a bit quicker while at the same time making sure that you can still deliver your trade and show the world what you are really good at.

“As a tight forward, you just have to meet the fitness requirements, to make sure that you can set quickly and keep the game flowing. I think it’s actually beneficial. It just requires more from the forwards. The teams that adapt quickest are the teams that will do well.”

Wallabies match

Looking at the challenge that they are expecting from the Wallabies‘ scrum, Nche cautioned against being complacent, despite the Boks’ dominance over them in recent years, claiming that they are trickier than people realise.

“For me, their scrum is very unpredictable. You can see that they actually want to scrum. They stay in the contest. They will do anything to make sure that they dominate and go forward,” said Nche.

“It’s going to be a challenge for us, especially given that we aren’t in Super Rugby anymore. It will be the first time since last year that we actually get to scrum against them.

“From what I have seen, they can be very unpredictable. You don’t know what they are going to bring. We just have to be prepared for anything.”