'It would get heated': Ex-Bok reveals how 20-man scrum honed set-piece

The Springboks have enhanced their scrummaging strength by training against up to 12 opposition players, a tactic aimed at improving their set-piece dominance.

Former Springboks hooker Schalk Brits revealed that this approach, implemented under Rassie Erasmus, has made the team a formidable scrummaging unit.

Historically South African rugby has emphasized set-pieces but Erasmus focused heavily on it, which contributed to their 2019 Rugby World Cup triumph.

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“The scrum isn’t about individuals, it’s about the team. If you scrummed back in the day, when we were focusing so hard on the scrums, we would scrum not against eight, we would scrum against 10 or 11 or 12,” Brits told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby South Africa podcast.

After former scrum coach Matt Proudfoot departed after the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Daan Human took over and brought further expertise.

“Daan coached us at the Bulls and he’s probably evolved and changed a couple of things but the guy is just so passionate about scrumming, it goes a long way.

“That’s the thing, he brings that passion to the scrum. A lot of coaches focus on it but not in the way Daan focuses on it.

“There’s no scrum machine anymore, it’s gone. It’s bone on bone, flesh on flesh, off you go.”

Brits also shared humorous anecdotes from his playing days and praised Human’s contributions.

“What is great is in the olden days, you would try to beat the living crap out of each other. It would get heated and at the Lions there was a punch or 10 thrown, and that was standard – every scrum session or every mauling session,” said Brits. “This [Springboks] group does get heated I guess but it’s always in a sense of, ‘what did you do here? How can I learn from that?’

“The boys are not angry when scrummaging but they love it, they’ve made it a passion and so it’s hard for a guy that’s so excited to do one part of it [to do another].”