History of the South Africa national rugby union team on to criticise New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence for "one-sided" refereeing, claiming that Australian openside David Pocock was allowed to "reduce the breakdown to a farce". Lawrence was dropped from the nine-man elite panel in 2012. Following the World Cup exit, several stalwarts of the 2007 World Cup-winning side and the 2011 squad went on to announce retirements or moves abroad. This included captain John Smit, influential lock pairing Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha, and scrum-half Fourie du Preez. History of the South Africa national rugby union team The History of the South Africa national rugby union team dates back
Scrum (rugby union) a maul, the scrum is awarded to the team not in possession when the maul started. If a penalty is awarded for a more serious offence, the team to which it is awarded may elect to have a scrum rather than take a penalty kick or free kick. This is usually happens when the attacking team is close to the opposition's goal-line, and wants to occupy all the opposition's forwards in one area to give the backs more space. They may also think they can force the scrum over the goal-line and score a "pushover" try. A pushover try can