South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer believes it was the right call to go with uncontested scrums

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer believes it was the right call to go with uncontested scrums despite seeing his side suffer a second successive Rugby Championship defeat.

All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw scored a late try to help give New Zealand 27-20 victory before a sell-out 63,000 Ellis Park crowd in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The Springboks looked set to bounce back from their last-gasp defeat to Australia a week earlier with an impressive performance before they were stripped of their dominance in the scrum.

With both of their nominated specialist tightheads – Jannie du Plessis and Vincent Koch off injured – referee Jerome Garces called for uncontested scrums, despite loosehead prop Trevor Nyakane having started at tighthead several times this season.

World Rugby regulations state that teams must name their loosehead and tighthead props before kick-off and if both players in a position are injured, scrums are no longer contested.

“I support his call as both our tightheads were injured and the law has to be followed, as it is there to protect the players,” said Meyer.

“It did come at a bad time for us though, as we were really scrumming well. We also lost Francois Louw at a crucial time, and we dominated the breakdowns at that stage.

"I had to use the bench much earlier than we wanted because of injuries to Jannie du Plessis, Vincent Koch, Lood de Jager and Francois Louw.

"Both our starting tighthead prop (Du Plessis) and his replacement (Koch) had to go off at times when we were scrumming well.

"Lood was also really good considering this was only his second game in a long time, and we lost Francois when dominating the breakdowns."

Mental strength

Despite the loss, Meyer still believes that South Africa can beat anyone at the World Cup and is confident that they are in a good place.

"The mental strength and attitude of the squad bodes well for the World Cup," he said.

"The guys know they can beat anyone. We came within inches of beating the All Blacks and the Wallabies and that is a massive improvement when you consider where we were just after the 2015 Super Rugby competition.”

South Africa host Argentina on August 8 in their final Rugby Championship fixture and play a Test in Buenos Aires a week later before the mid-September World Cup kick-off in England.

Du Plessis (knee), Louw (shoulder), Koch (broken ribs) and Warren Whiteley (broken ribs) are all now doubtful for the game against the Pumas.