Springbok scrum coach Daan Human has rejected All Blacks coach Dave Rennie's claim that the Bok eight were walking around in the second Test in Cape Town, insisting his methods have never included that tactic and never will.
"Walking around, I can promise you one thing, I've never coached that because we want to actually go forward," Human said on Tuesday. "It's not really the ideal for us so we don't want to do it."
Human was characteristically blunt when addressing the accusations directly. "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." He added that if the Boks were walking around now, they had been doing so throughout his six years in the role — an implicit challenge to the novelty of Rennie's complaint.
The counter-narrative within the Springbok camp holds that the All Black front row shifted across before engagement in Cape Town, forcing the Boks to adjust rather than the other way around.
Human promised sharper execution ahead of the third Test at Soccer City on Saturday. "We will work even harder to be precise in what we're doing … it must be legal, straight-forward dominance."
Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli takes charge of the decider, and Human was measured in his approach to the change from Angus Gardner, whom he praised for his consistency in Cape Town. "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."
On the brake-foot law and the credible-feed requirement, Human was candid. "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. The credible 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."
Human was almost evangelical about the scrum's place in South African rugby. "It's part of our culture. And I suppose it's part of the country." He half-jokingly said he would love supporters to adopt a scrum chant the way Norwegian football fans mime rowing for their team.
Lock Ruan Nortje, who was central to the Boks' lineout dominance in Cape Town after New Zealand had the better of that contest in the first Test, said the focus was on maintaining the edge without complacency. "For us it's all about sticking to our processes, working hard during the week … 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."