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Cape Town - Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett says Bok coach Heyneke Meyer got his scrum substitutions wrong in last Saturday's Test against Italy in Padova.
The Boks won 22-6 after leading 8-6 at half-time.
Trevor Nyakane and Coenie Oosthuizen were the two starting props, while Gurthro Steenkamp and Julian Redelinghuys replaced them in the second half.
Mallett, speaking in the SuperSport studio afterwards, said Nyakane should have stayed on for the full 80 minutes.
"I thought Heyneke Meyer missed a beat with the substitutions. We took Trevor Nyakane off, who was scrumming very well against Martin Castrogiovanni, to bring on a non-scrummager in Gurthro Steenkamp. He's good in the tight-loose but he's not a good scrummager. And then we brought on Julian Redelinghuys - a good scrummager - and took off Coenie Oosthuizen.
"It would've been ideal to give Nyakane 80 minutes and get Redelinghuys in there with Bismarck du Plessis, and then we might've dominated the scrums. But by taking off Nyakane and getting on Steenkamp we had an unbalanced scrum for the full 80 minutes."
