The Crusaders’ all-conquering scrum could result in some happy pills being lobbed into Steve Hansen’s rugby diet this year.

After last season’s Grand Slam tour a fuming Hansen threatened to implement “golden oldies” scrums into the All Blacks game plans during World Cup year after his men were repeatedly penalised by northern hemisphere referees. Eight months later, however, the All Blacks’ forward coach’s anger needle is out of the red zone and the Crusaders’ powerful set-piece during the Super competition may have been instrumental in his mellow mood.

With Ireland’s Alain Rolland to control Saturday night’s test against the Springboks, Hansen will watch his forwards operate under a northern hemisphere referee for the first time since Rolland’s compatriot, Alan Lewis, issued 17 penalties – many in the scrums – against the All Blacks during their 37-25 win over Wales in Cardiff.

Despite the Springboks’ pack being severely depleted for this Tri-Nations fixture, Hansen’s scrum will be given a far more rigorous examination than it received from Fiji last weekend.

“You have got to take ownership of it [the scrum] yourselves and just make sure that if you are in a dominant pack you are not trying to be too dominant and cause them to collapse,” Hansen said. “You just have to hold them up. The Crusaders did it particularly well, I thought, during the year. They had a really good mindset and we will just
continue that mindset into our side.”

Hansen was miffed by just how often the All Blacks were penalised whenever they exerted pressure on opposition feeds during their Grand Slam tests and when Wallabies coach Robbie Deans chipped in from afar saying the New Zealanders employed “trickery” to manipulate referees, Hansen fired back that the comment was “laughable”.

“The answer is don’t put pressure on, just let them win their ball,” a frustrated Hansen said after the Cardiff test.

“We can stop trying to put pressure on the opposition scrum so they stay up. We want to put pressure on them but if they fall over all the time we’re getting penalised.”

Having watched the Crusaders repeatedly dismantle opponents this year Hansen’s mood should have improved – eight of their forwards are in his current squad – although he will still be pensive as to how the northern officials will adjudicate the set pieces in the Tri-Nations and during the global tournament.

He was adamant his opinion of the South African side was one of respect despite their deflating 39-20 defeat to the Wallabies last weekend.

“They are good players and they can play a lot better than they did in that test. But maybe that was Australia that made them look poor. Australia certainly played better but I think you will see a different beast.”

The Press, Richard Knowler