Henry backs Blacks scrum after de Villiers ‘cheating’ jibes

NEW ZEALAND coach Graham Henry has refused to get into a war of words with South Africa counterpart Peter de Villiers after the latter accused the All Blacks of cheating in the scrums.

De Villiers has accused loose-head prop Tony Woodcock of manipulating the pre-hit routine to prevent the front rows being stationary and of boring in on Springboks tight-head CJ van der Linde during last Saturday’s Tri-Nations match in Wellington.

The Springboks coach said the All Blacks caused the “walking around of all the scrums by using their loosehead prop to scrum in and at times when he didn’t scrum in he just came up. That gave them the momentum to come in around us.”