Balie scrums down with Baby Boks

South African Referees scrummaging coach Balie Swart on Monday said he was satisfied with the progress of the SA Under-20 scrum in preparation of their first Test against Argentina in Vredenburg on Wednesday.

Swart attended an SA Under-20 training session in Saldanha and spent the morning with the Baby Boks in coaching them scrum techniques and the safety aspects around scrum play.    

The SA Under-20s are currently in camp in preparation of their two Tests against the Argentina Under-20s which takes place on Wednesday at the Vredenburg Rugby ground and on Saturday (March 6) in Cape Town.

“Accuracy around scrums is all about good systems,” said Swart.

“We have some big boys here with the SA Under-20s who can scrum. But what’s disturbing is that when players join the national structures from their provinces they come with different techniques which is a problem.

“We are a nation that knows how to scrum and can scrum well. So we need to give our youngsters every chance of excelling at this level.

“It is important that we understand and implement decent scrum systems in South Africa. If we could have one system in South African rugby where forwards scrum to one structure, we won’t lose time in teaching the guys certain scrum techniques.

“There’s got to be one system so that when players graduate to the national teams, they feel comfortable with our systems.”

SA Under-20 forwards coach Nico Serfontein welcomed Swart’s involvement at the Baby Boks’ training session. He believes that the players

“With the referees now placing a stronger emphasis on the scrums and in particular the engagement and the ‘hit’, it is going to be important that we get our scrums right.

“We are very fortunate to have someone of Balie’s credentials assisting us with the scrum. It’s obvious that the teams that he [Swart] has assisted have excelled with their scrums.”

Swart will attend a second scrum session with the SA Under-20s at their training base in Saldanha on Thursday.