Dark arts.

Springboks hooker Bongi Mbonambi has accused Ireland of playing “tricks” at scrum time during their opening Test in Pretoria last weekend.

South Africa were expected to dominate the Irish on the scrum, but Andy Farrell’s side not only kept parity for much of the game – they dominated for large periods.

And Mbonambi reckons this is down to the Irish not allowing a “fair contest” for much of the game.

“We had quite a good chat yesterday with Daan [Human] and the whole pack and in the first half we got frustrated because Ireland looked to play a lot of tricks at scrum time,” Mbonambi said.

“Where we just want a fair competition. We want a fair contest in the scrum, and it’s somewhere where we definitely have trained this week and learned our lessons from last week.”

South Africa did however empty their bench in the second half, unleashing the ‘Bomb squad’ who secured a crucial penalty try late in the game but still feels the Boks can improve.

“The Bomb Squad did an amazing job coming on and that penalty try was very satisfying for everyone,” Mbonambi added.

“But there is a lot of improvement to made from us when scrummaging against them.”