VIDEO - Scrum clock: Time will always be on South Africa's side
SPOTLIGHT: Springbok scrum guru Daan Human says his team will not be fazed by law trials designed to speed up the game, especially at set-piece time.
In May this year, World Rugby revealed that those trials would be rolled out in lower-tier competitions such as the Under-20 Championship.
It included 30-second shot clocks for scrums and line-outs.
Ahead of Round One of this year’s Rugby Championship, SANZAAR is expected to implement that set-piece clock and a 30-second reduction in the shot clock for conversions (90 seconds to 60 seconds).
The Springboks pride themselves on dominating their opponents at scrum time and Human believes the heavyweights in the Bok pack will have no problem adapting to the new rule.
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“Last week, I think we got through 16 live scrums in 20 minutes [in training], so we are more or less there in terms of what we would like to achieve,” Human told reporters from his team’s base in Brisbane ahead of their clash against the Wallabies at Lang Park on Saturday.
“I also think there are fewer scrums in a game normally.
“It’s not a new thing for us.
“As I said in the past, we like to get our scrum sessions tougher than the ones in the game games, which is not always the case.
“We are trying to get there as close as possible, but for us setting it up in 30 seconds is normal.
“We measured ourselves this week and I think we got to the point where we are actually right on par with where we want to be, so it’s not really a change for us.
“If you want good scrums, obviously you must train them [players] well. In that space of time, we always try to have as many [sessions] as possible to get them ready for the scrum.”
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Meanwhile, the Springboks have a history of not getting the results they want against Australian teams.
it is something that has been mentioned by media quite a bit in the build-up to the opening rounds of the Rugby Championship and the conversion has included Human’s area of expertise.
“Every team has got their strengths and that [scrums] is definitely one of our strengths,” said Human.
“They [Wallabies] always find a way to manage us and to handle us. Sometimes they are good and sometimes not so good.
“In the last three games, they have a 100 percent record when it comes to their scrums.
“They have much more stable scrum than they used to have in the past.
“We are already working on a lot of new stuff that we want to implement.
“Little by little we are getting there, and we will see on Saturday how it goes and if we are going forward or not.”
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