Human expects Boks to cope with new scrum law

The new 30-second scrum trial law in the Rugby Championship is not giving Springbok scrum guru Daan Human any sleepless nights.

Instead, he hasn’t fully adjusted to the time zone difference and it’s rather the jet lag that has been keeping him awake in the week that the Boks are preparing to take on Australia in the first Test of the southern hemisphere tournament.

Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium will host the world champions on Saturday (6.30am start SA time) as they look to continue their fine form since starting the test season in July against Wales at Twickenham.

Human joked that he only went to bed at 5am yesterday, but getting little sleep in a Test week seemed the biggest of his worries and not any law changes that will be implemented in the tournament.

“For us, it won’t be tough to adapt to the new scrum law,” Human said from Brisbane yesterday.

“Setting the scrum up within 30 seconds is normal for us. We measured ourselves this week and I think we got to the point where we are right on par with where we want to be, so it’s not a change for us.

“If you want to get some good scrums, you must train well. Last week we got to 16 live scrums (during practice) so we are more or less there in terms of what we would like to achieve. As I’ve said before, we like to get our scrum sessions tougher than the ones in the game games, which is not always the case. But we try to get it as close as possible.”

Much has been made of the Springbok winning record in Australia and how they sometimes struggle to put the hosts away, despite being the more fancied side.

On Saturday, things won’t be any different. Although the Aussies were unbeaten throughout their mid-year Tests, the Boks have arrived Down Under as world champions and the top-ranked side. The Wallabies find themselves ninth at the moment, but South Africa haven’t been successful in Brisbane since 2013 and playing in Australia always comes with plenty pitfalls.

“There are a lot of changes that happened at the Wallabies and they have a new coaching staff. But they have done very well beating Wales twice. I think they are four games unbeaten, which is great for them.

“But I can’t say they are better prepared than in the past. I won’t look down on a previous coaching team. What you can see is that there has been a lot of progress going on and they are playing a good brand of rugby.

“We are aware of the record they have against us in Brisbane. No one in the coaching staff has been part of that because it’s so long ago. But that is history. Saturday’s game will also be history. It’s just a fact.

“On our side, we are just doing everything to be well-prepared to face them and have a good game. They will likely be doing the same. Come Saturday, we need to pitch up physically and have everything in place to perform against them.”

Human added that they must also adapt to how the referee officiates on Saturday to be on top of things. England’s Luke Pearce will be the man in the middle for the opener.

He knows if they get this part right, it will set them well on their way to reaching the first goal of starting the Rugby Championship with a victory.