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) his job was to feed the ball into the scrum. Wing forwards were frequently accused of obstructing the opposing scrum-half, and this contributed to the International Rugby Football Board, later known as the International Rugby Board (IRB) and now as World Rugby (WR), outlawing a two-man front row. Until the second half of the 20th century there were many configurations of scrum; including 3-2-3, 3-4-1 and 3-3-2. The 1906 Springboks became "the first national team to utilize the 3-4-1 formation". South Africans credit Springbok Fairy Heatlie for developing the 3-4-1 formation in 1901 at the Villagers Rugby Club in Cape