Wallabies forwards last night laughed off claims from New Zealand's coaching staff and a former All Black that they are scrum cheats.
All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen yesterday attempted to apply the pressure on young Wallabies halfback Luke Burgess by claiming he unfairly spun the ball into the scrum to deliver quick possession.
And former All Blacks prop John Drake argued that the Wallabies' scrummaging against the Springboks was illegal, saying of their pre-engagement: "I can't believe they got away with what they did at scrum time with their technique of entering."
Drake said during a radio interview: "The biggest thing I probably got out of the Test is the way that they probably cheated at scrum time. They pack very high, similar to what the Crusaders and the All Blacks did about three years ago. When they say crouch, they're still high, so the other team has to try and come up to them. It kind of puts them off, and then the Australians just dive straight down. I was pretty annoyed with that."
Wallabies breakaway Rocky Elsom appeared astounded when told of the cheating allegations, saying: "That's probably the last thing we want to do because when the scrum does collapse, we usually get penalised first, so that wouldn't help us a whole lot."
Elsom was then asked whether All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw was supposedly cheating at the breakdown, but the Wallabies back-rower gave the Kiwi captain the full back-slap.
"If you're getting away with it, it's not really cheating," Elsom said. "There's a lot of interpretation to the rugby laws, and it's probably not cheating. If he can get away with it, good luck to him. Getting away with it consistently is harder than it sounds."
Several journalists also tested whether Elsom would take the bait by insinuating that the New Zealand scrum was also up to no good.
"What you know about the New Zealand scrum is that they usually offer different tactics to the South Africans," Elsom said. "They don't rely on the size and strength as much as the South Africans do."
Are they sneakier? "I wouldn't necessarily say sneakier."
Are they cunning? "I wouldn't say that, either." With that, the conversation trailed off.
Earlier, Hansen was as clever in the message he was trying to deliver, relying on Kiwi reporters to take the bait about Burgess.
"They [the Wallabies] are clever with the way they do things, you've only got to look at the way the halfback puts the ball in," Hansen said. "They've adapted their scrum to suit the way they play. They don't keep the ball in the scrum for a very long time."
Hansen shook his head when queried if he believed Burgess was deliberately not putting the ball in the scrum straight.
"I'm suggesting you want to look at how he puts it in," he said. "How he holds the ball before he puts it in."
