Legendary prop Tendai ‘The Beast’ Mtawarira has hailed the work of former Springboks coach Matthew Proudfoot in turning the scrum into a real weapon.

South Africa’s scrum has been a cornerstone of their game and has played a pivotal role in the team winning back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles and a British and Irish Lions series.

Beast: “The scrum culture has changed over the years.”

Mtawarira was part of the side that won the first title in 2019 and played a central role in the scrum’s success, with the Test centurion starting every knockout match for the Boks en route to lifting the William Webb Ellis Cup.

In an interview on the Squidge Rugby YouTube channel, the Beast said that the Springboks haven’t always had such a big emphasis on dominating the set-piece, but the mindset shifted during Proudfoot’s tenure as the team’s scrum coach.

“The scrum culture has changed over the years. When I started playing for the Springboks, we wanted to dominate up front. We’ve always had a huge scrummaging culture, an ethos within us that we want to dominate, but it wasn’t really emphasised,” he said.

“We had snippets of greatness; we dominated the British and Irish Lions in 2009, which was fantastic, but it was not sustained. Fast forward to the later stages of my career before I retired. In 2018 was when the culture really started evolving. 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. Every single scrum we want to get the maximum result. We want to get a penalty. That was our attitude for every single scrum.”

South Africa’s depth in the front row

Whilst Mtawarira praised the former scrum coach, he added that the calibre and depth of the props have contributed to the team’s success too. He also praised current scrum coach Daan Human for building on the foundations that Proudfoot laid.

“Then with the calibre of props that have been coming into the Springboks, they’re just so strong; they already have the physical prowess to shine at the top and have added the technical part,” he continued.

“Having this driven culture when it comes to scrumming, that’s what has probably gotten the scrum to where it is today.

“Daan Human is a fantastic coach and built on what Matthew Proudfoot set back in 2018.”

Mtawarira also revealed that while the Springboks did do their homework on the opposition that they would be facing at the 2019 World Cup, the messaging remained consistent.

“We didn’t change. We prepared for every opposition almost the same way that we wanted to be destructive up front,” he explained.

“We did study and analyse the opposition, like they like to come around the corner or whatever the case might be. They like to put a lot of weight on you in the binding phase; they’re probably leading to a bit of pre-engagement. We did focus on finer details, but the actual messaging every single week was that we’re going to go destroy you up front.

“That mentality never changed regardless of who we’re facing.”

Why the scrum remains a weapon for the Springboks

The ex-front rower believes that Erasmus has the best two scrums in the world at his disposal, which is a product of the way the team trains and the importance of the Bomb Squad.

“It’s the culture and standards,” he replied when asked why the Springboks scrum is so good.

“It is a fact that when they say the two best front rows in the world are in the same team, they’re both playing for the Springboks.

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“The guys that start the game and the Bomb Squad push each other. 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 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.

“That’s why we are so effective, and that culture has just evolved. There’s a lot of talent coming through the pipeline. Zachary Porthen is coming through; we have Carlu Sadie and all these amazing props that are just giving the Springboks such an advantage. I think that’s why we’re able to sustain performance after performance and never rest on our laurels.”