Springboks scrum guru rejects All Blacks accusations as he insists ‘I can’t ever cheat’
Springboks scrummaging and their assistat coach Daan Human.
Springboks assistant coach Daan Human is adamant that they are scrummaging legally despite claims to the contrary from All Blacks boss Dave Rennie.
South Africa have looked to defend themselves after New Zealand’s head coach accused them of “walking around” in the set-piece in order to gain an advantage.
That was vehemently denied by Rassie Erasmus and Boks’ scrum guru Human has now added his voice to the discussion ahead of next Saturday’s third Test in Johannesburg.
Springboks coach’s assurance
“We always try 100 per cent to do it by the book, that’s the way we have been brought up. I can’t ever cheat or tell the players to walk around – we never work like that,” he told reporters.
“I can assure you one thing, we will work even harder in order to be precise in what we’re doing. We always aim for legal, straightforward dominance.”
The Springboks dominated the scrum battle for an hour of the opening Test at Ellis Park before it was much more even at DHL Stadium last Saturday. It has set up another fascinating battle this weekend and Human insisted that they will be scrummaging straight.
“If you say we walk around, then we’ve been walking around for the past six years ever since I’ve been part of Springbok rugby. Sometimes one thing causes another thing to happen, and it might happen. We are not perfect but we’re striving to be perfect,” he said.
“We need to adapt to the referee [Nika Amashukeli] and how he sees things and if he addresses some things we can improve on then we will try in the very next scrum to do it better. I can promise you, one thing I’ve never coached walking around because it’s not ideal for us.”
Refs in the spotlight
All this talk also puts pressure on the officials, whose decisions have been placed under the microscope due to some of the comments from the All Blacks and Springboks. Matthew Carley took charge of the first Test with Angus Gardner overseeing the second, while Amashukeli has been tasked with the third.
“Referees need to understand what’s happening in the scrum and they all have a lot of experience,” Human added. “I actually thought Angus Gardner was very consistent in his decisions last Saturday. What he called for us, he called for them. It was the same story.
“I have respect for him and I’m not going to question his decisions, but also that’s in the past now. This weekend we need to adapt to how the new referee sees it, and if he tells us to fix something we’ll fix it. But I genuinely don’t think Angus refereed differently to how he normally does.”