England vs South Africa: Behind the Springboks’ scrum

Wednesday at 10:30 AM

Crouch, bind, set.

No nation personifies that process more than the world champions.

Over the past five years, the golden generation of South Africa forwards have developed arguably the most formidable and feared scrum in rugby.

The development of the now famous ‘Bomb Squad’ before the 2019 World Cup played a huge role, but their scrum runs deeper and has been part of their culture for decades.

“What South Africa do and we have always believed is that the scrum is an area where you can enforce yourself,” 2007 World Cup winner BJ Botha told BBC Sport.

“That is where we are legally allowed to be physical and manhandle players, which will hopefully overflow into other moments on the field. When we scrum, we scrum to dominate.”

Paarl Boys’ High School are one the powerhouses of schoolboy rugby in South Africa, drawing in a crowd of 25,000 last year for a match against rivals Paarl Gimnasium, and helped develop current Springboks props Thomas du Toit and Frans Malherbe.

Gurthro Steenkamp, another member of South Africa’s 2007 World Cup-winning squad, also played his schoolboy rugby there and has seen a shift towards the set-piece at an early age.

“South Africa are putting a massive emphasis on the development of props and especially the scrum,” La Rochelle scrum coach Steenkamp added.

“At my former school they start to give attention at the age of 14 and 15 to the finer techniques, so they are prepared for the ages of 15 and 16 when they have a proper contest in the scrum.”

Scrumming is one of few things that is restricted until adult rugby, with teams only allowed to push a maximum of 1.5 metres in school.

Botha worked as a forwards coach at Paarl Boys’ High School from 2021-2023 and now works with schools and teams on a consultancy basis to supply specialist coaching and analysis.

Rather than wait until they are old enough to go full bore at scrum time, props in the schoolboy system are trained beyond their years.

“It is a very fine balance that is regulated by the unions and referees who are doing it in a controlled manner, so we have these specialist positions coming through the system,” Botha added.

“South Africa are just doing that better as they want specialists coming through.”

The edge is not just at schoolboy level but also now the highest level.

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