Hooker Stephen Moore admits the Wallabies are sweating on South African referee Jonathan Kaplan to give Australia’s oft-maligned scrum a fair go in Saturday’s Tri Nations and Bledisloe Cup clash with the All Blacks.
Kaplan’s countryman caned the Wallabies, and in particular veteran tighthead Al Baxter, in last month’s 22-16 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland, with three second-half scrum penalties totalling nine points ultimately costing Australia victory.
Under Irish referee Alain Rolland, the Wallabies had no such problems in Cape Town two weeks ago and actually dominated the Springboks scrum despite suffering a 29-17 defeat.
A diplomatic Moore on Thursday said the Wallabies were hoping for similar treatment from Kaplan, who has a history of causing heartache for Australia.
“I think he’s an excellent referee of the scrum so I’m sure he’ll make the right calls out there on the field,” Moore said.
“That’s all you can hope for and we need to take the referees out of the equation as much as we can by scrummaging well and scrummaging positively, which is what we intend to do.”
Moore, though, did concede the Wallabies had addressed the issue of Baxter’s binding, which he was repeatedly pinged for at Eden Park.
“You always look at things after the game that you’ve been penalised for,” he said.
“It was the bind that we got done for a few times, but in any other game it could be another thing.
“But we don’t ever intentionally collapse scrums and we’re pretty adamant about that.
“We didn’t have a problem with it against the Springboks, so we’re hoping it’s not an issue on the weekend.”
It came as no surprise to Moore that the Wallabies were able to shove the powerful Springboks scrum around at Newlands.
“It’s been building that way for a while so we were pleased with the performance there,” he said.
“But we’re well aware that the All Blacks pose a different threat in that department and we’ve prepared in that fashion.”
Australia outscored South Africa two tries to one in Cape Town but still lost by 12 points due to the deadly boot of Boks five-eighth Morne Steyn, who nailed seven penalties and a drop goal.
Wallabies centre Berrick Barnes said as much as fans would rather witness more expansive rugby, kicking would likely once again dominate Saturday’s Test.
“Kicking’s going to be a part of it no matter how much we try and say we want it to be running rugby,” Barnes said.
“There’s going to be a kicking element to it because field position – as you’ve seen with the way the laws are now – plays a big part in winning games.
“If you’re down the right ends, you go a long way to winning it.
“But I certainly hope when we get the opportunity to play football, we will.”
Barnes would personally prefer to play under the Experimental Law Variations, which produces more attacking rugby, but said his and the Wallabies’ hands were tied.
“It obviously affects us and we’d like to see that changed, but we don’t have much say in that,” he said.
“Last year we saw a lot more tries because it was quick and faster, but now with the ELVs leaving it’s obviously changed things again and you’ve got to play accordingly.”
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