The referee for Saturday’s Test has already watched your scrums. All of them. Last week’s, the week before that, every one you got wrong in the 29-24 defeat in Soweto that put South Africa 2-1 up.
That is the Tamaiti Williams scrum warning, and there is no accusation in it. It is a compliment, and it comes from a serving All Blacks prop.
Do you think a referee arrives at a Test with his mind made up? Say so below, because Tamaiti Williams has just described exactly how it happens.
What Tamaiti Williams says a referee brings into the stadium
Williams is the All Blacks loosehead and has not played since 28 February, when a spinal infection that could have ended more than his season put him in hospital. He spent Tuesday’s episode of The Good, The Bad & Rugby ANZ as a fan rather than a player, and gave away something front-rowers usually keep inside the changing room.
“Whether they’re playing games or not, the ref goes into the game with something in his head that he’s been looking at all week. Just like players, he’s watched every scrum of the week before. And if you don’t paint good pictures early, or if a call doesn’t go your way early, it can have an effect on maybe the 50/50s.”
That is not the complaint it looks like.
Tamaiti Williams is not saying officials are biased. He is saying they prepare exactly like players prepare, which is obviously true and almost never said out loud. A referee reviews. He arrives with a picture in his head of how your front row behaves under pressure, and the 50/50s are the scrums where the call could go either way.
And after Soweto, plus a defeat in Cape Town before it, the impression he is carrying of the All Blacks scrum is not a flattering one.
So the first scrum in Baltimore is worth more than every scrum that follows it.
Read also: Kieran Read has already explained why the Springboks scrum is legal and undetectable, which is the reason the pictures matter so much.
The bit nobody in New Zealand wants to hear from a prop
Three weeks of national argument have gone into the scrum. Then Tamaiti Williams was asked where a Test is actually decided, and he did not say the scrum.
“The breakdown, bro. I thought the first 20, 30 minutes we were hot on both sides of the breakdown. So personally that’s where I think a game’s won or lost.”
A specialist front-rower, four days out from a Test framed entirely as a scrum contest, declining to make his own set piece the centre of it.
He is not wrong about Soweto either. New Zealand were excellent at the breakdown early and stopped being excellent at it later. The All Blacks were rushing at Ellis Park rather than being out-muscled three weeks ago, which is another problem that only looked like a scrum problem.
The Tamaiti Williams scrum rule: control what you can, which is not much
Williams has been on the receiving end of this, and his answer is unglamorous.
“It’s hard when you start worrying about the ref as a front row because we can’t control what he’s going to call, but the best thing we can do as a front row is show good pictures.”
Good pictures. Straight back, square shoulders, a bind that holds, a scrum that goes forward or at least does not fold. Not because they win anything on their own, but because they are the only evidence a referee gets in real time. The other side of that exchange is on record: Ox Nche told the referee he wanted the scrum, which is what confidence in your own pictures sounds like.
The frustration underneath that is real, and he did not hide it.
“It’s frustrating, man. Especially when you think you’ve done everything you can to stay up and go forward.”
It explains why Dave Rennie went to World Rugby about what its referees are missing rather than saying nothing. And why, when Nick Mallett took an All Blacks prop through the same lesson on live television, the panel called it a shot through the heart.
George Bower’s rule, and why it is harder than it sounds
The only advice Williams still quotes came from the man who has been wearing the jersey in his absence.
“One thing about [George Bower] — he taught me when I first come to the Crusaders — you park what happened at the last scrum, and the most important thing is the scrum in front of you.”
It sounds like a cliché until you put it next to what Williams said about referees. If the official is carrying a picture from last week, and from the last scrum, then the prop is the only man on the field who is required to forget. He has to reset while everybody officiating him is doing the opposite.
Which is the actual job at a Test scrum. Not strength. Memory management.
Frequently asked
Do referees really watch a team’s previous scrums?
Tamaiti Williams says they do, and describes it as preparation rather than bias. In his words the referee “goes into the game with something in his head that he’s been looking at all week”, the same way players review opposition footage.
What does painting pictures mean in a scrum?
Presenting the shape a referee is looking for: square shoulders, a flat back, a bind that holds, a front row staying up and going forward. Williams calls it the only thing a front row can control, because the call itself is out of their hands.
Where does Tamaiti Williams say a Test is won?
At the breakdown, not the scrum. He said New Zealand were “hot on both sides of the breakdown” for the first 20 to 30 minutes in Soweto, and called it the place a game is won or lost.
Why does the first scrum of a Test matter more than the rest?
Because it is the first evidence the referee gets in real time, and by Williams’ account he arrives having already reviewed the week before. A front row that presents a square, stable picture at the opening scrum is arguing against the footage; one that folds confirms it. Williams calls the pictures the only part of the exchange a prop can control.
Your turn
Two ways to hear what Tamaiti Williams said. Either it is an honest description of how officiating works, and New Zealand have spent two Tests handing a referee the wrong pictures, which is what the Soweto ratings assumed when the front row carried the blame. Or a referee who arrives with last week’s footage in his head is a problem the sport should not accept, and Williams has just told you it happens every week. Which one is it?
