Nick Mallett's core argument is straightforward: Angus Gardner chose to manage the Cape Town scrum rather than referee it, and that decision effectively neutralised one of South Africa's most reliable weapons. Mallett contends that once Marx and Nche were introduced at a critical first-half juncture, the momentum shift was unmistakable — Gardner quickly awarded two penalties, then appeared reluctant to keep punishing the All Blacks, seeking confirmation from his assistant before acting and otherwise letting collapsed scrums go with a 'play on.' In Mallett's view, the All Blacks escaped three or four penalties they should have conceded, and the final count of two against New Zealand should have looked much closer to the six from Ellis Park.
On the Erasmus-Rennie spat, Mallett places the opening shot firmly with the All Blacks camp, who raised South African game-slowing tactics at the start of the tour before any response came from the Springbok side. He also flags a specific concern raised by Victor Matfield's SuperSport analysis — that the penalty against Steenekamp may have been caused by the All Blacks loosehead walking around first, making it geometrically impossible for the tighthead not to follow. The piece lands on a pointed warning ahead of the third Test: how the Georgian referee manages the set-piece could be decisive, and Mallett is clear that Gardner's approach set a troubling precedent by treating dominant scrummaging as a problem to be managed rather than rewarded.