Kiwi campaign against scrum backfires
MAKO Vunipola believes New Zealand’s concerted campaign to destabilise the British and Irish Lions’ scrum has backfired.
The Crusaders and the Highlanders both attempted to influence officials by claiming they had set-piece dominance over the Lions – an area where the tourists always hoped to be strong.
The Lions stole an edge in the 12-3 Crusaders win despite home protests to the contrary, before slipping off the set-piece pace in the 23-22 Highlanders defeat.
Vunipola believes outside criticism forced the Lions to redouble their set-piece efforts – and the tourists bullied the Maori All Blacks at the scrum in their fine 32-10 win in Rotorua.
“There was a bit of talk from outside about our scrum and how it was creaking but we focused on what we can control and if anything, it has given us the kick in the backside that we needed,” said Vunipola.
“The scrum is pretty simple, whoever pushes harder wins, we knew that coming down here but we’ve had to adapt a little bit and we are looking forward to the challenges that are still coming.”
Both the Crusaders and the Highlanders players could be overheard on the referee mics telling the officials that they had the edge on the Lions’ scrum in those two provincial contests.
But the Maori had absolutely zero chance of attempting the same ruse with referee Jaco Peyper at the Rotorua International Stadium on Saturday.
The Lions’ shadow Test XV reasserted their scrum potency at just the right time, with the first of three clashes against the All Blacks taking place on Saturday in Auckland.