A rugby miscellany compiled by GAVIN CUMMISKEY:

Less pause: More action to get scrums more stable

THE LONG-awaited quest for consistent refereeing promises to be a hot topic this month. Matt Williams made an interesting point on television the other night. Australia get a yellow card for every six penalties. The Springboks for every eight. The All Blacks? One sin-binning every 48 penalties. The suggestion being they intimidate the officials.

Former Wallaby prop Al Baxter had a pop at Alain Rolland after last weekend’s match against New Zealand in Hong Kong. Rolland is supposedly at fault for delaying the “couch, touch, pause, engage” routine for up to 10 seconds. Bob Casey made the same complaint in a recent column. The blame lies with the IRB head of referees, Paddy O’Brien.

“It probably destabilises the scrum having such a long pause,” said Baxter. “Think if you had to have guys on the starting blocks running or on the blocks swimming, if you had to hold them that long before they started. And that’s essentially what we do as well, and we’ve got eight guys from both sides all having to hold that long on the blocks, so it just means that is doesn’t actually make the scrum any more stable having a really, really long call.

“So ideally if the call was shortened then you’d actually have less re-packs.”

Or as Bob described it, “couch, touch, pause – have a cup of tea - engage.”

Every major team is in this neck of the woods for November. Any chance of the referees singing off the same hymn sheet?

POWER PACK

DESPITE INJURIES, the Springbok pack looks as menacing as ever, so expect the direct approach.

Leinster’s dud signing CJ van der Linde should feature having returned home and got himself fit, while Bakkies Botha returns after his latest suspension, for head-butting All Black scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan. Their combative hooker Bismarck du Plessis is another back from injury. (Bismarck and O’Driscoll have previous: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcGyWqQNPBs)

No fear: Lambie ready to run with the Springboks

PATRICK LAMBIE kicks, runs and passes like a natural.

The latest kid to streak through the South African ranks could make his Test bow on Saturday, in the unfamiliar position of inside centre, should Jean de Villiers fail to recover from a groin injury.

If the 20-year-old’s man-of-the-match display in the Currie Cup final for the Natal Sharks is anything to go by, Lambie is the real deal. On 12 minutes he gathered possession at outhalf with a wall of Western Province defenders blocking his path. He stepped off his left, then right foot to bamboozle two attempted tackles before handing off Schalk Burger, of all people, to scamper under the posts for a brilliant try.

If given the opportunity to repeat this process, Jonny Sexton and Gordon D’Arcy will provide the initial shield with one from David Wallace, Stephen Ferris or Jamie Heaslip sweeping across.

Reading between lines: De Villiers and co hint not much going on from A to Z

WITH THE Springboks in town expect to read more about them in these pages tomorrow (when we get the chance to visit the Conrad Hotel and quiz their coach Peter de Villiers).

In the meantime, here’s a sample of musings from the Springboks from earlier this week.

Now, we would never accuse our guests of looking down their noses at little old Ireland, but interpretations of their comments have been provided – just for fun, of course.

“We know them (Ireland) from A to Z,” said De Villiers. If they are going to change a few things, which we do expect, we will be ready for that too.

Translation – I reland pick the same bunch of players every time because they have no one else. Even if they pick other players we are still better.

“Their first phase and lineouts are very good and they won’t allow us any space at the back with Brian O’Driscoll there and the guys who cut down your space with their rush defence.” – De Villiers again.

Translation – Brian O'Driscoll is their only world-class player. Stephen Ferris? Never heard of him. Rob Kearney? Caught a few balls on the high veldt, so what? Stop Ireland's attack off first phase and they quickly run out of ideas.

“They (Ireland) are very good at set-phases, like all the Northern Hemisphere teams are,” Victor Matfield reiterated. “And it is not like in the Southern Hemisphere where we use set-phases as a launching pad, so they really focus on that.”

Translation – Ireland hope to score a try off the lineout, maybe sneak a few penalties and then defend (do they even know that Paul O'Connell is injured?)

Insulting, and hopefully a naïve summary.