South Africa produce never-before-seen scrum method against Italy

Classic Rassie!

Known for his innovative plays, head coach Rassie Erasmus conjured up another wily piece of trickery against the Azzuri.

From a kick-off, the Springboks purposely fouled by not reaching the 10-metre line with the kick, resulting in a scrum to Italy.

However, given the home side's dominance at scrum time, the logic of the move is clear to see.

We saw a similar piece of work in the 2023 World Cup, when they opted for a scrum off a mark when playing France.

Teams: 

South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Thomas du Toit.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Evan Roos, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 23 Ethan Hooker.

Italy: 15 Mirko Belloni, 14 Louis Lynagh, 13 Tommaso Menoncello, 12 Marco Zanon, 11 Jacopo Trulla, 10 Giacomo De Re, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 8 Ross Vintcent, 7 Manual Zuliani, 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Niccolo Cannone (captain), 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Pablo Dimcheff, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Muhamed Hasa, 19 Matteo Canali, 20 Alessandro Izekor, 21 David Odiase, 22 Stephen Varney, 23 Giulio Bertaccini.

Venue: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth
Kick-off: 17.10 (17.10 Italian time; 15.10 GMT)
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Matthew Carley (England), Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
TMO: Tual Trainini (France)