Beast hails Bok scrum architect

Tendai ‘The Beast’ Mtawarira has revealed how the Springboks transformed their scrum into a weapon that opponents dread facing.

The former Bok prop credited ex-Scotland international and Stormers forwards coach Matthew Proudfoot, who took over as Bok scrum coach in 2018, with helping change the mindset from simply seeking an advantage up front to making every scrum an opportunity to punish the opposition.

“The scrum culture has changed over the years,” Mtawarira said in a Squidge Rugby interview. “We’ve always had a huge scrummaging culture, an ethos within us that we want to dominate, but it wasn’t really emphasised.”

Mtawarira, who started every knockout match during the Boks’ 2019 World Cup-winning campaign, said the change under Proudfoot was significant.

“I have got to give credit to Matthew Proudfoot, who came in and he just took the scrum from being a place where we just wanted to get some sort of ascendancy to being a place where we want to actually inflict pain on the opposition,” he said.

“Every single scrum we want to get the maximum result. We want to get a penalty. That was our attitude for every single scrum.”

ALSO: Marx confirms SA return

The ex-Bok powerhouse also praised current scrum coach Daan Human for building on those foundations, while highlighting the quality and depth of South Africa’s props.

Mtawarira said the competition between starting front row and the replacements drove standards even higher.

“The guys that start the game and the Bomb Squad push each other,” he said. “I was there in 2019, and I can tell you, like myself against Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch against Frans Malherbe, Malcolm Marx against Bongi Mbonambi – the standards that we set at training were so high, we pushed each other because we wanted to start.

“But Rassie [Erasmus] just brought in a different angle to say that whether you’re on the bench or whether you start, you have an equally important role in the outcome of this match.

“The intensity was so high that when you got to a Test match, it actually felt too easy.”

Photo: Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images