Springboks prepped to face Tonga’s ‘hell of a pack’ — Daan Human

The Springbok pack must be able to take “the hit” when they front up to Tonga in their final Rugby World Cup pool match at the Stade de Marseille on Sunday night, according to scrum coach Daan Human.

It has not been a great tournament for Tonga so far, with them suffering heavy defeats against Ireland and Scotland in their two pool games, but Human believes that their biggest weapon is their scrum, which the Boks will have to be prepared for.

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The Boks need a big bonus point win over Tonga to confirm their place in the competition quarterfinals and to do that they will need to assert their dominance up front.

Human also admitted that he prefers seeing his charges score a push-over try, rather than watching them win a scrum against the head when defending on their own line.

Heavy pack

“If not the heaviest pack in the whole competition, they’ve got a massive hit and we need to be able to handle that. They put Ireland under a lot of pressure. They’ve got a hell of a pack,” said Human.

“One hundred per cent a pushover try. I’m not going to say what it really does to me, but anyway. For a scrum coach that’s the thing you dream about.

“For the team as well, because they deserve it, especially the way the guys are working and grafting week in and week out. They never complain, they never say ‘no, not one more’, because they know it’s working.

“It’s been working for us in the past and I’m sure it will work for us going forward. It’s awesome the way the guys train. They can handle it. They’re built for this … this is what we do.”

Kicking woes

The Boks’ tight pool loss to Ireland over the past weekend came down to their kickers missing a number of shots at goal, but not choosing to go for the corner more often was also a big factor in the defeat, especially with the kicking struggles well known.

Despite their unwillingness to go for the corner when they probably should have, Human claims they still back their maul to do the job.

“Average statistics say that 70 per cent of all the kicks going into touch are not successful. So we backed our boys for the kicking and that’s why we kicked for the poles,” explained Human.

“We’re still backing our maul as well going forward and we will work on that. I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong (way). There’s a way that you’re feeling comfortable with. We were feeling very comfortable with Faf (de Klerk) kicking those long kicks.

“I like that he has a lot of confidence in kicking, so I don’t think we must go away from that. Sometimes it will go over, sometimes it will not. Like in the lineout … you might score or you might not.”