When you start talking scrums, even true Europeans and Antipodeans find it increasingly natural to speak more gruffly, their voices hardened by the unforgiving high veld sun. Like ‘Oom Polla’ Roos in 1937, in unconscious moments you may even catch yourself substituting ‘k’ for c’ and calling for more scrum.
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Such is the hypnotic dominance that the modern Springboks’ ‘bomb squad’ have on stage. This forces other top nations to reassess their priorities ahead of the World Cup Australia only 12 months away. The Wallabies almost lost the game at the weekend from an unassailable position on the scoreboard, due to collapses on the hook and loose heads from the bench in opposition to the best Springbok crew of Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw.
The recent series The biggest rivalry in the Republic threw New Zealand pecking order on both holder and whore into a rare state of disorder, even chaos, for All black people‘ selector. The men who left New Zealand as the undisputed first choice returned home wondering if they would ever represent their country again.
It was the same for Ireland after the racing version of the Judas Cradle they endured on that infamous night in Dublin last November. The men in green conceded five penalties, two other penalties and one penalty attempt equivalent to the rugby equivalent of nuclear devastation in the game at the Aviva Stadium. The expertise of no less than six forwards who represented the crème de la crème of the British and Irish game, on Lions tour of Australia in mid-2025, just months before, was cruelly mocked on social media afterwards.
Of the three tight ends in that Lions group, Tadhg Furlong will be 34 by the end of the 2027 World Cup and Finlay Bealham 35, while Thomas Clarkson has yet to convince everyone that he deserves to be the undisputed starter for his province of Leinster.
There were also some well-publicised reservations about Andrew Porter’s technique from the other side of the front row. As an ex-England prop Alex Corbisiero commented ‘X’, ‘Porter has a history/perception of scrummaging at the (inside) corner/poor form, the All Blacks would raise it to the refs and then use tactics to track him.’
It was all convincing Leinster The inner circle that it’s worth moving Porter back to the other side of the front row for the third time in his professional career. As Leinster’s director of rugby Leo Cullen explained ahead of the opening round of the 2026-27 URC season:
Do we see him playing there for the rest of the season? No, not necessarily. But (it’s) just something we wanted to look at.
“Tadhg and Thomas are our two senior stalwarts, (but) ‘Ports’ has played there in the past. He came into (the Leinster (academy) as a loosehead. I remember the conversations we had when he was a stalwart. I think it would have taken a bit longer than it did.
“He took it very, very easy. Ports is a pretty phenomenal individual. (Then) he went back to the loosehead game, and he did it incredibly well (too)
“And that’s just something we wanted to look at. We’ve been building it up the last few weeks, and you just want to put it into practice real quick. Do we see him playing there for the rest of the season? No, not necessarily. But (it’s) just something we wanted to look at.”
Of the two nations that have suffered the most in recent times from the Springboks clash, Ireland will get the first crack at balancing the ledger, in round six Nations Championship November 21. To achieve that goal, they’ll need to get into the Boks’ scramble-time mindset in their game preparation, and they may need to firmly select Porter to do it for them on the field.
Nothing epitomizes the attention South Africa has always paid to the scrum than the following whore story for New Zealand’s legendary 1937 tourists, Krugersdorp’s 92kg monster, Jan Lotz. Young Danie Craven was fond of recalling the nuances of every detail when setting up a scrum:
“Jan Lotz would often say as the scrum formed: ‘Wag, Danie – mah, mah, mah.’ (‘Wait, Danie – wait, wait, wait’).
“‘Come on Ferdie, you’re not pushing yourself. Phillip, I want more from you. Fanie, come closer to me’ (‘Come on Ferdie (second row Ferdie Bergh), you’re not pushing hard enough. Phillip (Nel, Ferdie’s partner), I want more from you. Fanie (Louw, one of the prop brothers), come closer’).
“When everything was like that, he would say: ‘Nou’s ons reg.’ (‘Okay, now we’re ready.’)”
For the All Blacks on the receiving end, the experience of going up against those Boks was akin to being threshed by a combine. Lotz’s opposite number, Artie Lambourn, described the Springboks pack as outstanding, and completely unlike any other attacking pack the All Blacks had played against in that era. “His whole game was centered around the scrum and the forwards were a tackling machine. They were all big men, very strong, and they were as tough as a drum.” What has changed in the space of 90 short years? Those words would be just as apt to describe the Springboks scrum now as they were then.
A big fight at a crucial moment is, of course, more satisfying than trying. It’s just one of those feelings that you can’t replace with anything else.
It takes a special kind of hard-headed man to volunteer to fight that mentality, and Porter has it. To the question by The Irish Times a few years ago the last time he could remember going 15 weeks without a run, he paused before uttering the line, ‘before I ever played rugby’. Boom-boom. At the end of the same interview, he did not talk about his priorities on game day:
“A good day in scrums is the starting point for all props. Of course we have to do catch and carry, and hit our handles. I’ve scored a few tries but I think the average distance is about half a metre. My face scrapes the ground every time.”
“The big jerk at the crucial moment is, of course, more satisfying than trying. It’s just one of those feelings you can’t replace.”
On the first weekend of the 2026-27 URC, Porter had the chance to make up for some of the indignities Ireland experienced last November, and indirectly to correct the impression of scrum dominance the Lions created when they scored a push against the touring All Blacks:
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) August 26, 2026
The Lions’ loose prop who finished the game against Leinster was the same man who embarrassed Pasilio Tosi by carrying the pride of New Zealand over his own goal line. However right or wrong the feud was, whether you think it was ‘walking’ on the gospel according to Dave Rennie, or ‘drifting’ according to Erasmus’ writings, the All Blacks in general, and their persistent prop Tosi in particular, failed to find a solution to Lions No.1 SJ Kotze in real time.
Most encouraging of all from an Irish point of view was the ease with which Porter sorted out the technical problems Kotze created during the second half. With ‘Ports’ on the pitch, Leinster won a penalty with three penalties to nil by the 66th minute of the game.
Porter had already hinted that the referee wouldn’t be much help when Kotze walked around Leinster with his head firmly in place, dragging the scrum with him shortly after entering the fray:
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 27, 2026
Rather than wallow in the Irishman, Kotze immediately announces his intention to stay out of Porter and away from a true mano-a-mano contest. Whenever you see the head of a loosehead appearing like that down the side of a scrum, it is a telltale sign of a nimble scrum and a very pale imitation of true dominance. On this occasion, the Lions played the awarded penalty with sharp defenders down the left line.
Porter’s solution was simple and elegant. As he said in an Irish Times article: “You have to be smart. There’s method to the madness, not just brute force.” He took a short step inside to accentuate Kotze’s corner, so either the corner became impossible for the referee to ignore, or the former Springboks under-20 prop fell flat on his face as he was already off balance:
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 27, 2026
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 27, 2026
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 27, 2026
Like ‘Boy’ and Fanie Louw before him, Kotze attended the famous Paarl Boys High School in the Western Cape. He may never go down in Springboks lore as a pair of brothers, but he was a more than useful stepping stone towards Porter’s conversion back to stalwart back at the weekend. Kotze gave Tosa more problems than he could handle against the All Blacks, but Porter handled them all decisively and convincingly for his province.
The national team need ‘Luke’ far more in the number three jersey than they need him in the number one, where Andy Farrell can already call upon the services of repurposed Ulsterman Tom O’Toole, and three very promising loose heads in the form of young Leinstermen Paddy McCarthy and Jack Boyle, and potentially the best of them, currently the best of them all, pl. Connacht Galway Bay.
Irish scrummaging has a chance to regain its pride on November 21. The scrum in green has been overdue to recover from recent woes and the UCD alumnus deserves to be at the center of the effort, the comeback king.