If the Vodacom United Rugby Championship organisers were thinking of employing game publicists who could get the interest going with neat and accurate phrases that sum up what the looming battle is about, they could do worse than call on the Hollywoodbets Sharks scrum coach Philip Lemmer.
The importance of the scrums in Saturday’s big coastal derby in Cape Town between the DHL Stormers and the Sharks was probably summed up by the presence of not just one scrumming expert from the Sharks’ camp at Tuesday’s pre-match presser, but two.
Springbok loosehead Ox Nche was there, as he should be as he will have a key role to play, and so was Lemmer, who has guided to the Sharks scrum to an almost 100 per cent record from the season so far.
The Sharks bullied Leinster at scrum time last weekend on their way to their second win in the season and top spot on the log after two games, but there’s something quite different about facing up to the Stormers scrum in comparison to just about any other scrum in the competition (even the Vodacom Bulls now that they’ve lost Wilco Louw).
It will work the other way too. The Stormers scrum, although without key Boks in both games, was completely dominant overseas, and it was one of the driving forces of their opening win over Connacht in Galway and it was what enabled them to stay in the game in the face of a spectacular lineout misfire in the more recent game in Edinburgh.
For both teams the scrum is important for, as Nche reminded us, scrum penalties gain you much ground - both geographically and psychologically.
“Obviously we knew going into the Leinster game that we had to be dominant in set pieces as we knew that would be a point of difference between the teams,” said Nche.
“We also focused on the lineouts. We probably didn’t expect to do that well. We expected something more like 50/50, but as you know you win 30 to 40 metres every time you get a penalty from a scrum so that can give you crucial momentum in a game.”
NEITHER TEAM WILL BE USED TO A SCRUM STALEMATE
The Sharks have become used to having the scrum as a get out of jail card or a pressure intensifier this season, and so have the Stormers.
So what happens on Saturday at DHL Stadium, particularly if as appears likely the two front rows squaring up against one another are made up of Springboks who have done well as teammates at national level in the past and know each other so well.
That’s where Lemmer was so on point with what he said: “It is going to be a battle of the two big brothers of scrumming going against each other,” he said.
Indeed, given how the Stormers, even though under-strength, handled the All Blacks at scrum time in their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour game in August, it is not unreasonable to speculate that these two club packs might be superior to many if not most international packs, at least when it comes to scrum time.
THE BEST AGAINST THE BEST
And at DHL Stadium we will see two of the finest players in their respective positions, loosehead and tighthead respectively, Nche and Louw, squaring up against each other.
“They scrum against each other regularly in Bok training sessions and know each other really well. They’ve played against each other often at this level before. I think it will be an important part of the game but they will probably cancel each other out,” grinned the Stormers veteran Bok Deon Fourie, who has packed down with both Nche and Louw at international level.
The Stormers and Sharks have had some great scrumming battles in the past, dating back to the mid-1990s when the Sharks defused a powerful Western Province pack that had Garry Pagel, Andrew Paterson, the late Tommie Loubscher and Keith Andrews backing up in the 1995 Currie Cup final at Kings Park.
UNPRECEDENTED SCRUM DEPTH
But it is hard to remember an occasion when both teams had such depth to their scrumming.
The arrival of Louw back at his old team after stints in England and at the Bulls has added another Bok to a list of tightheads that includes stalwart Neethling Fouche, Zachary Porthen and, if he does come back as hoped in February, Frans Malherbe.
Those are all Boks, but there’s nothing wrong with Sazi Sandi either - most clubs would be happy to have him and start with him.
On the loosehead side it is a similar story for the Stormers, where Ntuthuko Mchunu has future international quality back-up in the form of Vernon Matongo and past international back-up in Olly Kebble.
Like the Stormers, the Sharks have been bolstered by the return of a past stalwart and star who has done well at international level.
Thomas du Toit is back after a highly successful stint with English club Bath, where he won trophies, and he has utility value to boot - as evidenced by last weekend when he started at loosehead to allow Nche to play off the bench.
Will the Sharks go that route again? The point is they have that option, as do the Stormers, who can start with Porthen and finish with Louw, or if coach John Dobson wants to emphasise a quest for cohesion by making a point of continuity in selection, it could be Fouche with one of the other two coming off the bench.
The tighthead who started for the Sharks against Leinster, Vincent Koch, is a double World Cup winner, and there’s nothing wrong with the highly promising young Hanro Jacobs either should he be called upon.
He’s one of the most underrated tightheads in a country that overflows with them.
Perhaps All Black coach Dave Rennie, because he questions the aesthetic appeal of the scrum, wouldn’t be among them, but many thousands would sign up to watch Saturday’s game just to watch what could be an intriguing scrum battle featuring some of the best practitioners of the art currently playing the game.