Mike Ross is hopeful there won't be a "knee-jerk" reaction to Ireland's humbling 24-13 defeat to South Africa last weekend, but he believes it’s a firm reminder that "the scrum still matters" at the top level of the game.
Ireland’s set-piece was destroyed by the world champions at Aviva Stadium. While Ireland retained possession on all four of their scrums, they were powerless to stop the Springboks on their feed; excluding resets, South Africa won six penalties and four other penalty advantages from 12 individual scrums.
Those infringements proved costly, with Ireland giving away two yellow cards at scrum time, while 19 of the 24 South African points came from scrum ball.
"I don't think there's many teams in world rugby, other that South Africa, no one else can do that," Ross said on the RTÉ Rugby podcast.
The former Ireland and Leinster prop (below), who played 61 Tests between 2009 and 2016, believes Ireland’s scrum paid a heavy price for James Ryan’s first half red card, losing the second row’s power and weight in behind Tadhg Furlong.
"We don't need a knee-jerk reaction here.
"It would help if we kept 15 players on the pitch, you know? It would help if we had a backup tighthead lock on the bench, or someone who could play tighthead lock.
"If you have Joe McCarthy and James Ryan in the same second row, then both of them can play tighthead lock, so if one goes off, the other one can fill in.
"But, I think it is a solitary lesson that Mike Ross is hopeful there won't be a "knee-jerk" reaction to Ireland's humbling 24-13 defeat to South Africa last weekend, but he believes it's a firm reminder that "the scrum still matters" at the top level of the game.. It still matters big time."
Ross joined Bernard Jackman on a dedicated scrummaging edition of the RTÉ Rugby podcast this week, as the pair broke down just why South Africa were so dominant at the Aviva.
The former tighthead prop looked at the players coming through the provinces in his old position, and while he is confident the talent is there, he believes Ireland should look to replicate the "scrum culture" that the South Africans are world leaders in.
"I'm not massively worried about our prop factory, I mentioned Seamus Toomey [IRFU performance pathway scrum coach] is on that now, and I see some good young guys coming through.
"Look at Leinster. You see the likes of Niall Smyth, and you've Andrew Sparrow, and you have Thomas Clarkson who has come through. You look over at Ulster, you have [Scott] Wilson coming through there. Down in Connacht, Fiachna Barrett, and down in Munster, there's Ronan Foxe. There's some big boys around.
"You know why is South Africa so good? Because they have a population of 80 million people, and they have a scrum culture, and they have the genetics to do it.
"And they love the scrum. They live for the scrum," he added.
Jackman has also called for the IRFU to look deeper at the South African scrum culture.
And former Ireland hooker believes Saturday’s defeat shone a bright light on an Irish scrum that is no longer a weapon against the best sides.
🗣️ "I'm going to have a rant about the feed now..."
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 26, 2025
What would happen if referees starting policing the scrum feed?
🎙️ @MikeRoss03
📺🎧 Full pod: https://t.co/kBS2yRxhgr pic.twitter.com/Ru6lc4q08o
"This is something that you can't just park, because if we park it and ignore it, next November and potentially at a World Cup, maybe it's not South Africa exposing us," Jackman said.
"Our scrum was under a bit of pressure in Chicago [against New Zealand] as well.
"It's never been tooled up like this, but I don't think it's a dominant scrum and it hasn't been for a long time in terms of winning matches with your scrum.
"We can match the scrum, but not without unbelievable technical and tactical attention to detail.
"They [South Africa] pick horses for courses. It's hard to expect all our players to be brilliant athletes, brilliant ballplayers. We don't need them all to be.
"For certain games, you need to be able to secure primary possession or not give away penalties in an area. So that's something that I'm sure will be one of the things they look at."
Jackman was also critical of some "reactionary" analysis to Saturday’s game, with calls for World Rugby to alter the laws of the game to ensure the scrum doesn't have as big of an impact on the game.
🗣️ "This is scrum p*rn... It's a beautiful body profile..."@bernardjackman and @MikeRoss03 delivered a scrum masterclass on this week's RTÉ Rugby pod. ☘️🇿🇦
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 26, 2025
📺🎧 Full pod: https://t.co/H9zbLJks6M pic.twitter.com/QtA3CXKAqb
But the former Ireland hooker doesn't want to see the setpiece depowered.
"We need to reward scrummagers, we need to reward teams. I did a coaching conference in Stellenbosch last year for schoolboy coaches and the amount of head coaches who were ex-props [was huge]. But it doesn't really happen here at the same level.
"You can build a reputation on your love to play, to coach the scrum in South Africa, whereas here it's seen as a restart.
"And turning that around, it doesn't have to become the be-all and end-all. We still want to be a team who can play, but you can't give up what we give up on Saturday or even half it, to be honest, even half it.
"If you give up half that against England and France in the Six Nations, say goodnight to your chances of winning the match," he added.
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