The Wales players faced with the hardest task in rugby this summer

If ever you needed proof that the scrum can still be a mighty weapon in the game of rugby, it was provided in the Champions Cup final in Marseille.

Despite being up against Ireland props Tadgh Furlong and Andrew Porter, La Rochelle got well on top in the tight, keeping Leinster on the back foot during a thrilling 24-21 triumph.

While much of the credit for their first European trophy has rightly gone to head coach Ronan O’Gara, one shouldn’t underestimate the contribution of their scrum doctor. Tellingly, given the challenge facing Wales this summer, he is a South African - former Springboks prop Gurthro Steenkamp, a man who earned 53 caps on the loosehead and was part of the 2007 World Cup-winning squad.

It once again provides evidence that if you want to learn about scrummaging, it’s not a bad idea to turn to a ‘Bok. Next month, it will be Wayne Pivac’s Welsh team who will face up to such a lesson, amid the stern examination of a three-Test series in the Rainbow Nation in July.

Scrummaging is very much part of the DNA of South African rugby, where the physical confrontation has always been savoured and embraced. They enjoy few things more than dominating in that department. If anything, it has become even more important to them in recent times, amid the emergence of the Bomb Squad, which played such a key role in the World Cup triumph out in Japan in 2019. That was a concept based on delivering unrelenting forward power by utilising a bench stacked with fresh beasts.

A big part of it is having two sets of real top-quality front row forwards, so that when one unit has emptied the tank another can join the fray early in the second half to renew the onslaught. At times, you could argue the trio coming on were actually