The British & Irish Lions’ tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong has “weaknesses that can be exploited” by South Africa’s Steven Kitshoff in the second Test on Saturday, according to Tendai Mtawarira, a man who knows a lot about the intense pressure of scrummaging in a Lions-Springboks Test with a series on the line.
The world champion known as “the Beast” made his name by destroying England’s Phil Vickery in the first Lions Test of 2009. But he had a tougher afternoon against Adam Jones of Wales in the second Test, as the Lions came roaring back.
“I think it was probably the most physical game I ever played,” Mtawarira says, by video from KwaZulu-Natal. “You know, there were just bodies … five guys were sent to hospital from the Lions side. It was brutal.”
Jones was one of those broken Lions, his shoulder smashed out of joint. The Lions scrum thus neutralised, the Springboks won the game and the series. Fast forward 12 years and a ferocious forward effort won the first Test for the Lions. Now South Africa must win, to avoid a third Lions series defeat.
Coach Jacques Nienaber has picked two new props and a bigger No 8.
“I think they’re very good changes,” Mtawarira says. “Steven Kitshoff, stepping into that No 1 jersey, he’s playing his 50th cap. It’s gonna be a lot to run out in front of the team. The guys are going to be super-emotional and ready to fly. But that’s not going to get them home. They have to be accurate and take the chances they get.”
The Lions have also swapped out a prop, Mako Vunipola of England in at loosehead for Rory Sutherland of Scotland. But Mtawarira looks at the other side of the scrum, where he thinks Ox Nché, now out injured, had the edge on Furlong last week.
To Mtawarira, the Leinster and Ireland man who he propped against in defeat in Dublin in 2017 is “one of the most gifted tightheads out there. He does his job on the scrummage really well and he gets around. But I think he’s got a few weaknesses that can be exploited.
“I thought Ox in that first half actually had him in a few scrums. You could see that the pressure was starting to mount and probably with another few scrums there would have been a few penalties. But Ox got replaced at the break.”
Asked to identify Furlong’s weaknesses, Mtawarira says: “He’s got a good shape when he scrummages on his own terms but if you upset his process then you can get him on the back foot and that’s one thing that Ox was doing really well, especially on the engagement.
“You have to make sure that you get the ascendancy from there and not give him an inch, and that’s what Ox did and then [Furlong] got into a bit of an uncomfortable position and he broke his bind probably twice. That [should be] an automatic penalty, because you’re under pressure and that’s why you kind of try and swing your arm to try and block the loosehead from going forward.
“So yeah, I think Furlong can be exposed. But we’re gonna have to be very accurate to do that.”
Mtawarira also sees Springbok weakness in the mauls, from which the Lions mined a try and the penalty that sealed the win, as a weakness to be fixed.
“We don’t like historically to concede a maul try,” he says. “That should never happen, especially in South Africa. For them to do that on us was a major turning point.”
The huge lock Eben Etzebeth, he says, must help subdue Maro Itoje.
“Itoje is probably one of the best players of this generation, super-talented, a game-changer. He can carry, he’s good in the lineout, he can steal possession. He’s a great leader. So yeah, I think we ought to try and contain him. It’s a big task. He gets in [scrum-half] Faf [de Klerk]’s face and tries to frustrate him.
“That plays a key role in winning. Those frustrations will lead to mistakes. So kudos to him and hopefully we just don’t allow it this time, in the second Test.”
In short, Mtawarira sees a recipe for 2009 in redux, if in reverse: the Lions trying to kill the series, the Springboks fighting for life, a ferocious Test even without fans to turn the Cape Town Stadium into the Colosseum.
Of late, the Boks have made a habit of lobbing a “bomb squad” of big forwards into the fray in every second half, to blast tiring opponents. On Saturday, many such players will be on from kick-off.
“We have to go for an explosive start,” Mtawarira laughs. “I think the ferocity of the game will be just as good as when a crowd is in the stadium.”
