BJ illegal say Wallabies

Australian forwards coach Michael Foley has accused BJ Botha of cheating in the scrums ahead of their Tri Nations opener against the Boks at Newlands on Saturday.

He said today that Botha scrums in at an illegal angle, thus isolating the hooker. He was trying to point it out to English referee Wayne Barnes ahead of the clash.

The Wallabies are running scared ahead of their expected pummeling in the scrums come the weekend. Donut Dunning must we wishing that Foley had never opened his big mouth. Surely this is going to inspire the Boks to go full out to destroy the whingeing Ozzie pack, and their powder-puff frontrow in particular.

It is expected that the Ozzies will try to come up with illegal tactics of their own to combat the heavier Bok pack – especially since the new scrummaging laws give the stronger pack the advantage because of the short engage distance. Barnes would be well advised to keep a close eye on their tactics.

Foley speaking to The Australian newspaper, was incredulous: “I can’t believe that he gets away with it. It’s obvious. It’s every scrum. His ball. Our ball. He never ever packs square and I just don’t understand how, game in, game out, referees ignore it.

“Botha is a powerful scrummager and he’s not a bad scrummager. We’re not saying that for a minute and we’re not saying they’re a bad scrum.

“We’re just saying: are the laws that you have to pack square? And if they are, is he packing square? My answer to that question is: never. And therefore there should be something done about it.

“A tighthead packing across the scrum like that is at a distinct advantage. But at the moment the referees are turning a blind eye to it.”

Loosehead Donut Dunning insists that they will be up for the challenge come scrum-time.

“That’s what they breed off. If you knock that out, maybe you take a bit out of them. We’ve got to defend their maul and scrum well. If we do, it will be massive for us and hopefully means we win the game,” he said hopefully.