Angus Bell's season with Ulster gave him regular exposure to South African provincial rugby, and his takeaway is blunt: the Springboks have fundamentally reshaped how forward-heavy rugby is played. Bell singles out the Bomb Squad model — the 6-2 bench split and the scrum-and-maul platform — as the template that URC clubs have now widely adopted, and argues it's the core reason South African rugby has been so dominant. His comments are notable because they come from a front-rower who spent a season going head-to-head with SA provincial scrums week-to-week, not just at Test level. He describes every South African scrum as something you have to actively attack rather than merely manage — a framing that speaks directly to why the Bok set-piece remains such a psychological weapon. For Springbok fans, it's a useful outside-in confirmation that what Erasmus built isn't just a Test-match trick — it's reshaping the global forward game.
Wallabies prop Bell: South Africa has set the modern template for scrums and bench use
Wallabies loosehead Bell credits his Ulster season with exposing him to South African provincial scrums weekly, concluding that the Bomb Squad model and scrum-as-foundation approach has genuinely revolutionised how forward-dominant rugby is structured globally.
- Springboks
- Rassie Erasmus
- United Rugby Championship
So how deep is the Springbok squad?
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