John Smit's appearance on the I Love Rugby podcast offers a sharp structural argument about why the Springboks dominated the set-piece in Rugby's Greatest Rivalry — and why the All Blacks may struggle to fix it. Smit wasn't surprised that the Bok scrum was devastating; he was surprised that New Zealand barely tried to contest it. His reading: the All Blacks actively avoided scrum engagements throughout the series, channelling ball to avoid feeding South Africa's most potent weapon — a front row anchored by Nche, Marx and a 140kg Louw backed by serious technique and relentless refinement.
The more interesting thread is Smit's argument about competition environment. The Springboks' move into European rugby has sharpened exactly the weapons that matter in Test rugby — scrum, lineout, kicking, maul — because those tools are tested hard every week in the URC and Champions Cup. Super Rugby, by contrast, deprioritises all of that. The All Blacks have the personnel, Smit argues, but scrumming proficiency is built through repeated hard contests, not gym work — and Super Rugby isn't providing that crucible. His conclusion: South Africa's Super Rugby exit, widely mourned at the time, has inadvertently handed the Boks a structural edge that New Zealand will find genuinely difficult to close.