There is no denying the fact that the Springbok Women have established themselves as a formidable set piece team with good success in converting their dominance in those areas into points, which is why there are no reasons why they should move away from that area of excellence when they play Spain in Elche on Saturday, in what will be South Africa’s first Test of the year.
That was the view of Bok Women scrum coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt after another good training session at the team’s base at the Bonalba Golf Resort in Alicante on Tuesday, where a lot of focus went into scrumming and mauling options for the team.
The Springbok Women (12th with 66.18 ranking points) open their international season against Spain (13th with 65.59 points) on Saturday and for Johannes-Haupt, that could play a role in their approach.
“They have been together for five weeks now and had four wins so far, so their improvement is real,” said Johannes-Haupt.
“They will come in well prepared, while we are only starting our season. That said, we have had several camps back home where we worked on a few aspects and variety in our game, and we would like to implement that.”
The Bok Women’s scrum power is no secret and for Johannes-Haupt not something they are moving away from soon: “We don’t want to move away from what we are good at; we just want to perfect what we are good at.”
The two sides met twice last year, once in Valladolid and once in Cape Town, with the Springbok Women enjoying 94% success rate in scrums on their own feed and Spain 74%. The South Africans also won 25 of 28 lineouts (89%), while Spain won nine from 14 (64%).
The Bok Women, who scored eight tries in those two matches – three of which were from mauls and two from scrums – while Spain scored five, with only one from a lineout and one from a scrum.
“We are certainly a set piece team, and we want to remain prominent and dominant in that area, but we also want to spice it up and add more to our play than just scrums and mauls, as successful as it is for us,” she said.
“This match will be about a solid foundation, and we will target the set piece, but more so because we want to give the backs ball to run with. If we provide the platforms for them to launch from, they will have ample opportunity to finish.
“I feel our defence has been reliable as well and we are working to add some attacking flair to our effort.”
The Springbok Women team to face Spain on Saturday will be named on Wednesday.
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