Injured Springboks lock Lood de Jager has questioned the legitimacy of the Wallabies' concussions in the weekend's Rugby Championship Test in Perth, suggesting Australia may have feigned head injuries to avoid scrummaging in the second half.
The Optus Stadium clash, won 30-12 by the world champions, descended into near-farcical scenes as multiple injuries in the front-row reduced the game to uncontested scrums.
After Angus Bell was replaced at halftime with cut above his eye, both Allan Alaalatoa and James Slipper then suffered head knocks and were ruled out of the remainder of the match after they failed Head Injury Assessments.
Speaking on South African rugby podcast The Verdict, former centre Jean de Villiers questioned whether it may have been a tactic by Australia to avoid scrummaging in the second-half, particularly with the Springboks "Bomb Squad" to come off the bench.
"The head injuries are a massive talking point," De Villiers began in raising the issue. "With Australia going to non-contested scrums and two props [off the field], are we now saying that if we see those guys playing in the next three to four weeks, that it was a plan, or how do we go about it?
"How do we say it was done on purpose or it actually happened in the game?"
While de Jager did not directly accuse the Wallabies of adopting such an approach, he did question the timing and the lack of concussion incidents from the Test in Brisbane a week earlier, won 33-7 by the Springboks.
"I think it's a difficult one with them going off with concussion, there's a certain protocol, it's 12 days before you can play again if you go off the field with concussion," De Jager responded.
"So I think maybe that's why they didn't do it last week because they wouldn't have guys available now [in Perth], but now with the week break and then another Test maybe they thought now is the time to do it.
"I don't know because it's so difficult to prove that they actually did it, but I did just think the timing would be kind of ideal if it was the case."
Asked about the run of injuries post-match in Perth, Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt said he had never been involved in a similar situation and rued Australia's bad luck, which included Allaalatoa suffering "friendly fire" via a stray elbow from a teammate.
"It's very hard to keep up with things when they happen that quickly," Schmidt said of the confusion the Wallabies' injuries created, which saw the hosts briefly drop down to 14 players when they did not legally have to.
"Some of it was managed at halftime because Allan and Angus Bell came off a halftime, but then you know you're skinny, you can't afford to lose another prop. And then Slips got an HIA right at the start of the second half, so you're in trouble straight away... I've been involved in over 100 Test matches and I've never seen that before."
Schmidt said Bell could have potentially gone back on after the cut, but that he would not have played on much longer after halftime had he done so given it was the loosehead prop's first game back from a toe injury suffered early in the Super Rugby season.
"We never expected to lose Slips anyway, he's one of the most robust 140-odd Test [players], so you just don't expect to lose him. So that was really disappointing for us and for Slips," Schmidt added.
Also speaking on The Verdict podcast, Springboks great Schalk Burger did not question the Wallabies' integrity, but suggested matchday squads should increase rather than decrease to ensure the scrum contest could continue.
"I believe that no team would do that," Burger said.
"So obviously HIA protocol will determine whether they're available next week but if you fail your HIA the chance of you playing next week is almost out of the question.
"I think to my previous point the squads will have to get bigger if this is the case because you feel short-changed as a spectator when the scrum is uncontested.
"It just looks weird, I think if someone watched the game for the first time and they were like 'why are there scrums and what is the scrum all about'.
"It was unfortunate from a spectacle point of view because I think we could have really put them under pressure. But what it did force us to do, and something that the Boks did haven't had this year and maybe the end of last year, is a maul to dominate, and our maul was so dominant this weekend."
South Africa have since returned home to prepare for their back-to-back Tests against the All Blacks, while Australia depart for their two-Test tour of Argentina on Friday.