With World Rugby's next law-review meeting scheduled for November in London, Dave Rennie is positioning himself to lead a renewed push to simplify the scrum and blunt the maul — two areas where the Springboks and France hold a structural advantage. The piece argues this isn't about improving rugby broadly; it's about nations whose game plans don't suit the current laws lobbying to change them. The maul is already drawing fire in Irish rugby media, with URC statistics being deployed to frame it as a 'cheat code' — and the author reads that as the opening salvo of a coordinated campaign ahead of the November meeting. The broader concern is continuity: the Shape of the Game conference effectively preserved the setpiece-heavy game, with World Rugby reaffirming rugby as a sport 'for all shapes and sizes,' but the losing faction never accepted that outcome. Rennie's own quotes make clear he views the November gathering as a chance to relitigate what he missed the first time around, and the piece draws a direct line between All Blacks self-interest and the framing of these proposed changes as being 'good for the game.' The warning to Bok fans is straightforward — Erasmus and the French will need to be ready to defend the setpiece game all over again.
Rennie's November offensive: the Boks' scrum and maul dominance is in the crosshairs again
Rennie is heading to November's World Rugby meeting intent on pushing scrum simplification and maul restrictions — changes that would directly undercut the Springboks' structural strengths. The piece dissects the political dynamics behind what's being framed as a law-improvement drive but reads more like a second attempt by the All Blacks camp to reshape the game after losing the argument at the Shape of the Game conference.
- Springboks
- France
- New Zealand
- United Rugby Championship
- Rassie Erasmus
Stephen Donald: Robertson copied the Boks — Rennie must go back to All Blacks DNA
Stephen Donald backs Hansen's anti-copycat argument, saying Robertson erred by chasing the Springbok blueprint rather than New Zealand's tempo-based strengths — and expects Rennie to correct that course ahead of a blockbuster four-Test series in South Africa.
All Blacks' loosehead crisis hands Springboks a ready-made weapon in Greatest Rivalry Series
Jeff Wilson has publicly identified loosehead prop as the All Blacks' most dangerous weakness ahead of four consecutive Tests against the Springboks — with Williams likely out, Tu'ungafasi's future uncertain, and the remaining options short on caps and experience. Set against the depth Erasmus has built across the prop positions, this piece maps out why scrum time could be where the Greatest Rivalry Series is decided.
Mulder's '95 Warning: Don't Sleep on the All Blacks
1995 World Cup winner Japie Mulder warns against writing off the All Blacks ahead of the four-Test series, drawing on South Africa's own underdog story to argue the gap in rankings doesn't guarantee a comfortable series win.
Erasmus: winning stays non-negotiable, whatever the World Cup build-up demands
Erasmus has made his 2025 season intent explicit: rotation and World Cup-building happen inside a framework where winning remains the non-negotiable baseline. The piece breaks down what that means for squad management, the veterans' standing, and why the All Blacks series carries extra weight.
Hansen's Right to Back Himself — But the Boks' Five-Match Streak Tells a Different Story
Jean de Villiers acknowledges Hansen's logic but argues last year's results and performances make it hard to see the All Blacks closing the gap on the Boks — and the panel get genuinely animated over what a 2-2 series tiebreaker would even look like.