BATTLE-WITHIN-A-BATTLE: Heavyweight scrum showdown worth price of admission in itself

While Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship semifinal showdown between the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Vodacom Bulls at Loftus Versfeld is a box office bonanza game in itself, with the winner getting the chance to play in the final, the battle-within-a-battle during the game is worth the price of admission itself.

Saturday's semifinal has another battle that rugby purists are licking their lips for - the ultimate scrum battle between a World Cup winning front row and the best scrum in the competition.

But will it be Vodacom @BlueBullsRugby or @SharksRugby? 🇿🇦

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It isn’t just bragging rights that are on the line, but in a game where margins are likely to be very small, any dominance that one side can bring can be worth its weight - and we’re talking a hefty weight here - in gold.

There is no chance any side in the competition hasn’t met with the Bulls pack and almost certainly regretted it this season.

From where they were in season one of URC to now it has been a transformation on a stage that is often misunderstood, but certainly anticipated as the Bulls have transformed themselves from the team that gave away the most scrum penalties in season one to the one that is now rated the best in the competition.

LOUW HAS BEEN THE BULLS KEY MAN

Part of that has been just sheer hard work - the influence of scrum coach Werner Kruger and the emergence of a pack that is growing in confidence and knows how to work together.

The other part has been widely seen by many - including those who give awards as Wilco Louw, who arrived last season back at the union he played his junior rugby at - was nominated as one of the South African URC Players of the year last week.

Louw's influence on the Bulls scrum cannot be underestimated, and the big bulk of 144kg that anchors the tighthead side has already impressed so much that he was called up to the Bok squad last season and is a certainty to be there again when the international season begins.

And he deserves it. Quiet and unassuming, the big prop has simply got on with the job. He doesn’t fuss, he doesn’t get involved in the off-ball sledging and he doesn’t look for the limelight.

But isn’t that what makes a top Bok tighthead in any case - take Frans Malherbe for instance - quiet, unassuming and devastating in a scrum. Louw has all the attributes to continue terrorising opposition looseheads for a long time.

On Saturday though, he comes up against a new challenge - Springbok prop Ox Nche, the smaller, powerful loosehead prop that has demolished international tightheads across the globe. Nche, the lovable loosehead, who coined the phrase “salads don’t win scrums” is a Springbok darling - and rightly so.

He moved into the role that Tendai Mtawarira fulfilled in the 2019 World Cup and before so easily that the Bok scrum arguably became stronger.

NCHE IS MR CONSISTENCY

While his Sharks’ side hasn’t always hit the right notes, Nche is the one consistent performer in the setpieces and with ball in hand that opposition teams take note of. There is a solid reason why in the URC’s individual Top 100 rankings - which are put together from various parts of players' games - he is the all-round No 1 player.

Louw v Nche would be a heavyweight battle for the ages on its own, but it forms a microcosm of a larger tactical battle for a place in the final where 14 other teammates play their part on each side.

To focus on just them alone would be an injustice to the scrum, or the game itself, as the Bulls also have Springboks in their front row that will want to stake a claim. Whether Gerhard Steenekamp is ready from his knee complaint this week waits to be seen, but he is another silent scrum assassin who has more than proved himself for the Springboks.

Jan-Hendrik Wessels is the upstart who has made massive inroads this season and has become a talking point for the improvement he made since Rassie Erasmus surprisingly included him in the Bok camp last year. Wessels is still young in front row terms, but he certainly has made an impression this week.

WORLD CUP WINNERS GALORE

The other side of the scrum needs no introduction - World Cup winners Bongi Mbonambi and Vincent Koch have World Cup medals on their side and are all so experienced that few will even think about questioning their scrumming technique.

These are blockbuster front rows on both sides, and the battle will be awesome to watch.

And yet, where the tactical key may lie is not in the starting front three, but the bench, where both sides also possess some firepower that would make sides in the URC jealous.

At hooker the Bulls have the angry warthog himself, Akker van der Merwe, who needs no introduction, while Fez Mbatha put in a massive shift against Munster and scored a crucial try for the Sharks.

At loosehead the Sharks have Ntuthuko Mchunu, who is a Bok and a fearsome runner when he gets a head of steam up. The Bulls unsung hero tighthead, Mornay Smith, has returned from injury and who will forget his power along with Wessels in that last scrum that saved the Bulls from defeat against Leinster a few months ago.

Smith is highly rated abroad, so much so that Munster have wanted to sign him.

JACOBS THE YOUNG BOLTER

Ditto for the Sharks in trying to lure Simphiwe Matanzima to Durban, another move that was stopped by the Bulls. Matanzima was out with a heart ailment but is back and has been putting in big shifts off the bench, but he has a challenge in himself with the Sharks rising star Hanru Jacobs on the other side of the scrum.

Jacobs is seen as the next big thing in Sharks rugby and has already been touted as a future Bok and his performances thus far - especially in the scrum in the second half against Munster have raised a few eyebrows.

If Wessels is the up and coming loosehead from the young ranks, then Jacobs is a tighthead bolter that we will all come to know in the next few years.

The battle-within-a-battle is box office stuff. The scrum is far from just a restart and the psychology behind it will go a long way to settling this weekend’s semifinal.

It’s one of those contests that you look forward to, a clash of bulk and technique in just the right setting to make you love the scrum again.

The battle that is worth the price of admission itself is only the battle within a battle, but it could be the only battle that matters this weekend.