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Springbok scrum coach Daan Human stood as firm as an immovable tighthead on Tuesday as he defended his pack, saying he worked by the book and the plan was always to go forward. The South African eight were accused of walking around in the second Test in Cape Town by New Zealand coach Dave Rennie, though there is a counter-narrative that the All Blacks’ front row edged across before the engagement, forcing the Boks to shift. “Walking around, I can promise you one thing: I’ve never coached that because we want to actually go forward — I don’t want to say on both sides, but with the whole scrum, never walking around; it’s not really the ideal for us, so we don’t want to do it,” said Human. He stressed that he had no desire to break the rules of the game. “We always try to do it 100% by the book; that’s the way I was brought up. “I’m a farmer; I’m just a normal, straight guy, so I can’t cheat or walk around. We never work like that; I never coach that. “But I can assure you one thing; we will work hard this week. We will work even harder to be precise in what we’re doing … it must be legal, straightforward dominance.” Human said the scrum was a national institution. “The [scrum] is for us a very important thing in our team. It’s part of our culture. And I suppose it’s part of the country.”He even said he’d like to see South Africans embrace it like Norwegians embraced their football team by mimicking rowing. “I actually would love them to say ‘scrum, scrum’,” he said, laughing.But he made it clear that his style of coaching hadn’t changed since he’d been in the job. “If you say we’re walking around, then we’ve been walking around for the past six years, ever since I’ve been part of Springbok rugby.“I can assure you … sometimes one thing is causing another, and it might happen. And obviously we’re not perfect — we’re striving to be — but we don’t always get it right.”Human was diplomatic throughout a press conference, even praising referee Angus Gardner for his consistency. “We need obviously to adapt to the referee and how he sees things, and if he sees things and addresses some stuff that we can do better, then we try literally for the very next scrum to do it better.“We’ve got respect for Angus, who was very good in the scrums in the past, and I think he actually was very consistent in his decision-making on Saturday in the scrums. He’s the man in the middle; we need to trust him.”Nika Amashukeli of Georgia will blow the third Test at Soccer City on Saturday. “This weekend it will definitely be the same. We need to adapt to the way he wants to do it and how he sees it. If he sees something in the game which is not right, he will tell us, ‘listen, fix that,’ and we’ll try to do it.”Asked about the brake foot rule, where the hookers are supposed to put one foot forward to help stabilise the scrum, Human replied, “They brought it in to basically take away a lot of the pressure on the necks of the front row … but if it’s helping, I’m not too sure because I still see some heads on shoulders. “And the correct feed, it’s for both teams, so as long as it’s being handled the same way for us and for them, then we’re basically happy … but the rule says you must hook it.”Lock Ruan Nortjé, who played a crucial role in the Springboks dominating the lineouts in Cape Town, said they were working hard to maintain their advantage.“They got the better of us in that first Test, and for us it’s all about sticking to our processes and working hard during the week, and I think this week is exactly the same, just sticking to our processes.“We put in place plans where we think we can put them under pressure, and I’m sure they’ll have their plans for this weekend. So for us it’s all about making sure we know how to handle it when they put us under pressure.” Business Day
