{"id":596126,"date":"2026-05-21T12:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/596126\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T12:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:12:11","slug":"thomas-du-toits-ultimate-scrum-which-includes-springboks-star-eben-etzebeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/596126\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas du Toit&#8217;s ultimate scrum which includes Springboks star Eben Etzebeth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ticketmaster.co.uk\/event\/3500638B9B963901?did=50off2&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=TMC-ISI-PlanetRugbynopassword50%25\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"ps-lazy-img alignnone size-full wp-image-1505088\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Barbarians-v-Wales-Banner-2.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>World-class prop Thomas du Toit has built his dream scrum following his experiences of playing in South Africa and England.<\/p>\n<p>The 31-year-old has become one of the best front-rowers in the world over the past couple of years and is now a key part of the Springboks squad.<\/p>\n<p>Du Toit is an excellent scrummager and was part of a Test unit which dominated their opponents during the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>However, he cannot do it alone and on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby, he was asked what support he would have.<\/p>\n<p>The tighthead did not speak about the other side of the scrum but instead listed the players he would like behind and alongside him.<\/p>\n<p>Best scrummaging hooker and lock<\/p>\n<p>Du Toit firstly started with hooker and lock, and both were easy calls for the prop.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMalcolm Marx straight away,\u201d he said. \u201cMalcolm\u2019s obviously an unbelievable player but he\u2019s a very good scrummager. Take a look at his boots, he wears 8-stud\u2026 he\u2019s full on into it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEben [Etzebeth] definitely [for lock] because <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/tag\/eben-etzebeth\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eben\u2019s<\/a> got this perfect combination between not being the heaviest guy on the field but also being very explosive, so he\u2019s in that middle range, which is exactly what you need from a scrum perspective of being able to hit but also keeping the pressure on. He\u2019s very fast into that space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Du Toit then moved onto flanker where he mentioned a couple of Englishmen, including Ted Hill, who he described as a \u201cfreak\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt flanker I really enjoy Ted Hill and Guy Pepper. They are fully committed to the scrum but we always gee them up to be more involved in the scrums, so they enjoy it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/thomas-du-toits-big-prediction-for-englands-rising-stars\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thomas du Toit runs the rule over England\u2019s improving front-row as big things predicted for rising stars<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Siya Kolisi an \u2018unbelievable scrummager\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Those two may get the nod over Siya Kolisi but the tighthead couldn\u2019t finish without discussing the scrummaging skills of the legendary Springboks captain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know it\u2019s very biased but Siya is an unbelievable scrummager. If you look at the scrum in its entirety until the ball gets out, he\u2019s probably the guy that stays in there the longest from the back-row,\u201d <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uSt7e0UOjVg\" target=\"_blank\">Du Toit said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It rather shows how seriously scrummaging is taken in South Africa, so much so that he took that attitude back to Bath after representing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/team\/south-africa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Springboks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Guy Pepper and Ross Molony first arrived at Bath, they had played one game and in this one specific scrum they were slipping. It was my first day back from the Springboks and I go, \u2018listen boys we really need to check our equipment and make sure when we go into battle, we\u2019ve got the right stuff\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were just like, \u2018on his first day in here\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/thomas-du-toit-in-springboks-claim-thanks-to-ox-nche\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018You see stars after scrummaging against Ox Nche\u2019 \u2013 Springboks powerhouse claims South Africa training more difficult that Tests<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World-class prop Thomas du Toit has built his dream scrum following his experiences of playing in South Africa&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[79322,348,3482,50,5903,4247,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-596126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-bath","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}