If the Springboks are looking for any more motivation for the last two Tests of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, they could do worse than take a walk past the BP petrol station a few hundred metres up the road from their hotel in Hyde Park.For more than 40 years the station has been posting quotes on a chalkboard — the “Petrol Pump Oracle” — on the verge of Jan Smuts Avenue, sometimes funny and tongue-in-cheek but always with some advice for the day. On Monday, they went with “Great things never come from comfort zones”. Tuesday and Wednesday was “Optimism is the faith that leads to great achievement.” It is a tradition that has lasted through three owners. Alison Purchase, who owned the station with her husband, Tony, was the driving force behind it for over 20 years until they sold up in 2022.She used quotes from Madiba, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jnr, Jimi Hendrix and Siya Kolisi. When Madiba died, Purchase covered the board with a black cloth until after his funeral. Perhaps the quote Eben Etzebeth, Ruan Nortjé and Lood de Jager would have smiled at came during the Covid era: “I get lockdown … but I get up again.” Two Tests in and Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry has been just that for South Africa. After a blood and thunder but ultimately nervous and wayward loss at Ellis Park, the Springboks found that great things do come from comfort zones by reverting to type and keeping it tight in Cape Town.Thus, going into the third Test at the FNB Stadium, there is much optimism but also a healthy chunk of wariness. The All Blacks were invigorated by their late push in Cape Town, and the score could have been as close as the Airlink flyover had the Springboks not remained calm and carried on defending.And then we have the scrum. Daan Human, the Springbok scrum coach, knows South Africa have the best scrum in the world. Ireland know the Springboks have the best scrum in the world, witnessed by the mayhem in November when the Boks won six scrum penalties and one penalty try. New Zealand know the Springboks have the best scrum in the world, and Dave Rennie is, to misquote Rassie Erasmus, “f**king walking” around trying to actually engage with the beast by negating its power.On Tuesday, Human, wearing his trademark bucket hat, was affronted at the insinuation that he would coach walking around “because we want to go through the scrum. It’s not ideal for us.”Scrums, said Human, were part of South Africa’s rugby culture, “our bread and butter”. To take it away would make rugby union a “13-man game”. “I hope I have at least 20 scrums in the game. That’s what I hope for.”He has a fan in Phil Keith-Roach, England scrum coach at the 2003 World Cup, who told the Telegraph, “South Africa use the scrum in a very different way to most teams today. Because they are so proud of it and because they are willing to keep the ball and go for a second shove, they really use their scrum as a weapon. They want to use the scrum to bully the opposition, drive them back, demoralise them. Winning a penalty is one thing, but they are also looking to physically and psychologically punish a team.”The scrum is a mini-drama, anticipation, timing, power, guile and strength. In Ox Nché, said Keith-Roach, they have a prop with “the perfect dimensions as a loosehead. He is strong, he is compact, and I love the way he just doesn’t mess around. You don’t see him chatting away. He binds up correctly, and he is not looking to do anything illegal — he just wants to engage the other prop at a reasonable height and then make it a test of strength. He does not rely on any subterfuge; he just wants that pushing contest.”No walking around there then, said Keith-Roach.That is what the All Blacks fear, just as the Springboks are concerned about the pace of the All Blacks out wide. On Saturday at FNB, Human said he would like to see Bok fans take up the Norway chant of “Row. Row. Row” with “Scrum. Scrum. Scrum”. That sounds like the perfect Saturday message for the Petrol Board Oracle.For more of McCallum’s writing, go to substack.com/@kevinmccallum