Soul destroyer
15 Jun 2010
Italy tighthead Martin Castrogiovanni will give the Springbok scrum a stern examination.
Castrogiovanni is constantly providing a challenge for the opposition and referees. Gurthrö Steenkamp has had to re-think his game after undergoing the Castrogiovanni test and although Steenkamp’s reluctant to admit it, the Italian tighthead may have done the South African loosehead a massive favour.
Castro, as he’s simply known, plays for the Leicester Tigers. They gave the South African pack such a working over in the Tigers’ 22-17 win over the Bok dirt-trackers in November last year, that the strength and reputation of South African scrummaging has been questioned ever since up north.
Steenkamp was man-handled for the opening 43 minutes at Welford Road, and has since overhauled his technique. He flew home straight after that game with a knee injury, and did a lot of thinking over his extended off-season.
‘That wasn’t the greatest day for the Boks,’ Steenkamp says euphemistically. ‘We didn’t scrum together in training and we came up against a strong pack. But after scrumming against Castro I realised I needed a change in technique because the scrum has evolved over the past year. Teams use it to milk penalties, like Leicester did, or as a great attacking platform.
‘I knew I had to adapt my game and I placed a strong emphasis on scrumming during the off-season.’
Steenkamp’s adaptation has meant he’s enjoyed an improved Super 14 in the loose and more importantly, at scrum time. It may have been an embarrassing lesson to take, but being schooled by Castrogiovanni has improved Steenkamp’s rugby.
The Bulls prop rates Argentina-born Castrogiovanni as one of the top three tightheads in the world, and Italy coach Nick Mallett agrees.
‘At 28, he’s only maturing in terms of prop play. In the next four years we’ll see the best of him,’ predicts Mallett. ‘He’s had another great international season and has also done well for Leicester. Dan Cole [who was England’s first-choice tighthead by the end of the Six Nations] is also in that squad, but Castro is Leicester’s first-choice. He’s the rock of their team.
‘He keeps defences busy with his pace and ability with ball in hand, while he contests on the ground, and makes a number of tackles per game.’
The Italian backs may be slow and unable to capitalise on the quality of possession they receive, but Mallett doesn’t try to hide the fact that the Italian scrum – with Castrogiovanni the spearhead – will provide the Springboks with a difficult challenge in a two-Test series in June.
‘The scrum is the one area of our game where we feel we’re competitive, if not better, than any international side we face. Castro is vital to that. Like most Argentineans, he’s a strong scrummager and is good in the tight exchanges, but what’s a bit unusual is how good a player he is all around the park.
‘He’s undoubtedly one of the best tightheads in the world at the moment, not only in terms of his scrummaging, but also his general play. Against Scotland this year, his statistics were phenomenal. He made 10 tackles, enforced four turnovers on the deck, and made six ball carries, while also completing his other duties at the set pieces. Those stats would be good for a loose forward.’
Castro may not be an official leader in the Italian side, but Mallett stresses that doesn’t take away how much he influences their fortunes.
‘He may not be captaincy or vice-captaincy material, but he still shows great leadership in how he applies himself. He’s a guy who can weigh 130-135kg [in his best shape he weighs 119kg], but he’s on a good conditioning programme at Leicester. We monitor him closely, and he sticks to it religiously to stay fit.’
Castro hasn’t only dented the reputations of many international props, but some officials too. In Italy’s Test against the All Blacks at the San Siro last year, Castrogiovanni and the rest of the Italian pack’s destruction of the Kiwis grabbed most of the headlines.
Trailing 20-6 with eight minutes remaining, the Italians camped on the All Blacks’ line, opting for scrum after scrum. New Zealand tighthead Neemia Tialata was eventually sin-binned, but despite awarding numerous penalties against the Kiwis for collapsing the scrum, referee Stuart Dickinson didn’t award a penalty try.
Afterwards, Dickinson said he couldn’t give the try as Italy weren’t going forward, but Mallett reasoned that they couldn’t do that as the All Blacks dropped the scrum. IRB referees chief Paddy O’Brien, a New Zealander himself, said that Dickinson had got it wrong and had O’Brien been reffing, he would have awarded three penalties to New Zealand.
The drama continued as officials from the Australian Rugby Union complained to the International Rugby Board regarding O’Brien’s verdict of Dickinson’s performance, and O’Brien in turn apologised. Mallett was not content with this and demanded an apology to his player and team. O’Brien later said he was misquoted by a journalist and that he wouldn’t have awarded the penalties to New Zealand.
Eventually all parties were apparently happy, but the player in the middle, Castrogiovanni, took the most strain. Steenkamp said he didn’t pick up anything illegal in Castrogiovanni’s technique, but Castro remained a target for refs, similarly to what BJ Botha went through in 2007.
‘Castro had a helluva tough time after that,’ says Mallett. ‘Refs started looking at us unfairly, and we’d get penalised at scrum time for doing nothing wrong. Against Ireland we were penalised repeatedly, even though we dominated again. After that, Paddy came over to me and said he’s sorry and acknowledged that the refs weren’t being fair. He realised they were looking solely at Castro, and not the other team’s faults.
‘Castro’s a guy who gets a decent shoulder on his ball, but on the opposition feed, he has a real go. I had to tell him that until the problems with the refs had been sorted, don’t go hard. Scrumming defensively was unnatural for him.
‘Even then, he still got penalised, and French ref Romain Poite came up to me after one Test and said after watching it on TV, he realised he’d got it wrong. That was frustrating for Castro and for us.’
That’s when a meeting was organised between Castrogiovanni and O’Brien. The Italian was getting penalised for releasing the bind, but he explained it was impossible not to once he was going forward.
‘If the opposition loosehead’s going backwards and pulls his arse out to the side, and Castro keeps his bind, he’ll dislocate his shoulder,’ says Mallett, relating what Castrogiovanni told O’Brien. ‘If Castro keeps his bind as the loosehead pulls out to his left, Castro’s shoulder will pull to his right to such an extent it will rip out the socket. Castro maintained that once he’s won the battle and is going forward, he should get the rewards.
‘Paddy told us he’s told refs that both props must scrum straight. If the loosehead pulls out at an angle, he should get penalised before Castro gets penalised for releasing the bind. That put an end to me telling Castro to scrum defensively.’
The Azzurri play the Springboks in Witbank and East London, and the hosts can expect their scrum to be given the Castrogiovanni test for a full 160 minutes. Whoever starts in the Bok No 1 jersey, whether it’s Steenkamp, John Smit or Beast Mtawarira, they should know they’ll be targeted.
‘If we’re facing the Boks with Pierre Spies playing No 8 and we give them a right shoulder, we’re f**ked,’ says Mallett. ‘Spies will run 40m off the back every time. It’s no secret, we have to attack their scrum. All we want is the officials to ref it objectively.
‘I’ve told Paddy to imagine it was Italy and not New Zealand who were defending scrums on their own line for eight minutes. Would they have given New Zealand a penalty try? The answer is yes, and that’s what we see when someone is reffing subjectively. All we want is for the scrum to be reffed fairly.’
By Grant Ball
– This article first appeared in the June issue of SA Rugby magazine
33 Comments
15 Jun 2010, 12:09 pm
OK. Not really interested.
Props bore me. As long as Spies gets front foot ball at the back of the scrum, I will consider the job well done.
15 Jun 2010, 12:11 pm
“‘If we’re facing the Boks with Pierre Spies playing No 8 and we give them a right shoulder, we’re f**ked,’ says Mallett.”
You have to love Nick Mallett
15 Jun 2010, 12:15 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-2: I ####### love that comment
15 Jun 2010, 12:16 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-2:
Ah, well now. I posted my comment #1 without even reading the above article.
Glad to see that Mallet sees things the same way I do.
15 Jun 2010, 12:18 pm
so paddy ate humble pie after being shown up as a liar, a biased kiwi and an all round kokhead to boot.
such utter bs but what can you expect from a man who was around when emails were flying back and forth saying “get the japies”?
15 Jun 2010, 12:19 pm
I must say though. I am constantly living under the fear that Spies is just one tackle away from a career ending injury.
I say this because he relies so much on his athleticism. A torn cruciate ligament, or Andre Snyman like ankle injury would effectively change him into just another Duane Vermeulen, Willem Alberts or Frans Viljoen.
His pace is what sets him apart. And that is something very fragile in the world of rugby.
15 Jun 2010, 12:23 pm
Great story about Castrogiovanni: He used to play basketball when he was younger (and still living in Argentina). However, he had a disagreement with a referee and punched him.
He said then he knew he was finished with basketball, he did not even bother turning up for the disciplinary hearing to find out how long his ban would be.
So yes, maybe the referee should be objective when it comes to a scrum that Castro is involved in.
15 Jun 2010, 12:24 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-7:
He should get along well with Schalk Burger, then.
15 Jun 2010, 12:27 pm
@Tacitus(Tacitus)-8:
Or Bakkies?
15 Jun 2010, 12:28 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-9:
Nope. Bakkies doens’t assault referees. He doesn’t even talk back to them. He just turns and walks off to the cooler bin, to wait out his ten minutes.
15 Jun 2010, 12:29 pm
Don’t ginx it Tacitus – we need Spies in top form come WC. We really do
15 Jun 2010, 12:31 pm
I don’t rate Paddy at all. He is still sour that he never got that WC final….if you ever read Andre Watson’s book you’ll learn how he ignored him for months after Watson got the nod for the 1999 and 2003 (and they were good friends)! Bitter old man if you ask me….
15 Jun 2010, 12:33 pm
If Marco Castrogiovanni castrates Chiliboy out of test rugby, justice will be served! (If Chiliboy can disappear till after the Wold Cup, even better)
15 Jun 2010, 12:33 pm
Paddy blew his chances in ’99 with a shocking display in the Fiji vs. France game. Wrongly disallowed a Fiji try, wrongly allowed a French try etc.
15 Jun 2010, 12:34 pm
@logie_Jumpbuck(logie_Jumpbuck)-12:
Andre Watson is not the most pleasant, squeaky-clean guy either…
15 Jun 2010, 12:38 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-15: i didn’t say he was, but he was a much better ref. paddy has a grudge and is now in charge of the very same body that ruled against him in 99 and 03.
15 Jun 2010, 12:39 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-15: tell me more?
15 Jun 2010, 12:42 pm
@rangerman(rangerman)-17:
Not the forum – most of it’s hearsay and opinion anyway, so not my place.
15 Jun 2010, 12:45 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-18: Who was the ref that had a fist fight with either his wife’s skelmpie, or the husband of his skelmpie? Was it Tappe?
15 Jun 2010, 12:45 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-18:
did you just say that keo is not the right forum for hearsay and opinion?
LMAO!
everyone from the journos to the bloggers deal in those currencies around here.
almost exclusively.
15 Jun 2010, 12:46 pm
@rangerman(rangerman)-20:
Well, I don’t.
No need to defame someone if you don’t have facts.
15 Jun 2010, 12:50 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-21: @rangerman(rangerman)-20: are you guys fighting about the reputation of a referee that doesn’t own a whistle anymore? jeez guys, andre has a very good rep all over the world. probably widely considered as the best there was…..personally i think JK should get the next call (i’m sure he’s secretly praying the boks don’t make it to the final)
15 Jun 2010, 12:51 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-21: sure, better to insinuate?
just kidding mate. i hear so many rumours about the people associated with rugby it is not funny.
for the most part, i file it in the “utter bs” column.
15 Jun 2010, 12:56 pm
Castro doesn’t look like he eats to many vegetables..
A prime candidate for ET’s red meat theory…
WPTID@ 15
Then why bring it up?
15 Jun 2010, 13:04 pm
Nicks team to get Hammered.
15 Jun 2010, 13:09 pm
@gunther(gunther)-24:
Fair enough. Lapse of judgment. Pretend I didn’t.
15 Jun 2010, 13:10 pm
@logie_Jumpbuck(logie_Jumpbuck)-22: we are not fighting.
in fact, we are chatting and i wanted a low down on some gossip wptid alluded to.
15 Jun 2010, 13:42 pm
@Tacitus(Tacitus)-1: Thats because your a chump, I am not surprised at your comments.
You fascination with Spies who is a # 8 with bad hands, not strong in the tackle and overall not aggressive enough is just plain weird.
Yes, he has pace but he also needs to harden up and play with more skill. He relies too much on his pace and for me he is not a complete 8th man.
15 Jun 2010, 13:43 pm
Wptid
You know rumour is like a red rag to a bull here!
15 Jun 2010, 13:45 pm
I am not suggesting that Spies is a bad player, hell, he is talented but by no means the supreme player you make him out to be.
15 Jun 2010, 15:13 pm
Castro will target Chili this Saturday that is a given let us see how Chili stands up! It will either make or break him!
There are on average ten scrums per match disregarding resets! It will be an acid test for Chili who is not a great scrummaging hooker ala John Smit, Bismarck, Tiaan Liebenberg, Gary Botha or Adriaan Struass.
In actual fact I’m actually not sure why he is there as all of the above are better players all round.
Good luck Chili as you did not pick yourself it’s not your fault.
15 Jun 2010, 19:49 pm
‘Spies will run 40m off the back every time. It’s no secret, we have to attack their scrum.”
We wasted Pierre Spies with a weak scrum for many years. We haven’t had a decent scrum since 2007.
Hopefully we wake up now. Or woken up. But we lived a few frustrating years.
But when our weak scrum was referenced everyone attacked those who expounded the obvious. Grant is more than vindicated.
16 Jun 2010, 16:52 pm
Castro is an awesome prop.
But consistently and completely illegal at scrumtime.
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