Springbok scrum guru Daan Human has responded to accusations surrounding his pack’s tactics against the All Blacks. CLINTON VAN DER BERG reports.
Daan Human doesn’t do the spotlight often. On Tuesday, the Boks’ scrum expert had no choice, walking into a media session with the scrum wars between South Africa and New Zealand raging in the background, accusations flying from both camps about who’s bending which law. He handled it the way he coaches, straight through the middle.
“It looks like every second guy is becoming a scrum coach now,” Human said, only half joking. “It’s always open to the public, and it’s a good thing that they have an opinion. But it’s important for us to focus on what we do and how we do it.”
No sourness, just a shrug dressed up in a smile beneath his trademark bucket hat.
“It is what it is, let them have their opinions.”
The accusation that gets under his skin most is the suggestion the Boks “walk around” in the scrum, quietly shifting to kill the opposition’s angle. Human doesn’t dodge it, he leans into his team’s history.
“If you say we’re walking around, then we’ve been walking around for the past six years, ever since I’ve been part of Springbok rugby,” he said. “I’ve never coached that, because we want to go forward. Walking around is not an ideal for us. We don’t want to do it.”
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When the criticism turned personal this week, he admitted it landed.
“That’s when I took it to heart, to be honest, because that’s not what we do,” Human said. “We try to take it straight through the middle, according to the laws, and show the referee a dominant picture on both sides.”
But he was quick to shoulder it rather than pass it down the line.
“It’s frustrating for all of us, but it’s part of the pressure I need to handle. I can’t transfer that pressure onto the players, that should never happen.”
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On the sport’s newer engagement protocol, brought in to protect front rowers’ necks, Human is unconvinced it’s fully working.
“I still see shoulders on shoulders. Is it really helping? I’m not sure, but we need to deal with it.”
No theatre, no shots fired back across the waters. Just a farmer’s son explaining, patiently, why the noise doesn’t change how he coaches.
Photo: Daniel Hlongwane/Gallo Images
The post Daan: Boks don’t want to walk around scrum appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Springbok scrum guru Daan Human has responded to accusations surrounding his pack’s tactics against the All Blacks.
The post Daan: Boks don’t want to walk around scrum appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
