Johannesburg — RUGBY World Cup-winning Springbok assistant coach and newly appointed Stormers head coach, Allister Coetzee, yesterday warned the national team that the scrums will be one of the most important aspects of the game when they take on Ireland on Saturday.

He said apart from the fact that Ireland would target the vital set piece to get on the front foot, as it has been a concern for the Boks on their European tour, the home team will have good insight into the Bok scrum as their forwards coach, Gert Smal, was part of the coaching team that guided the Boks to World Cup glory two years ago.

Coetzee also advised the Springboks to approach Saturday's game with the mind-set required to win "a World Cup final" if they wanted to beat the Six Nations champions on their home turf. His comments followed the Boks' morale-boosting 32- 10 victory against Italy on Saturday in what was their first win on tour.

"Our scrummaging in the second half against Italy with BJ Botha, Beast (Tendai Mtawarira) and John Smit in the front row was a good platform to work from ahead of the Irish clash because the scrum is still an area of concern for us," said Coetzee. "It is going to be a big game because it will be the Six Nations champions up against the World Champions and Ireland are aware of the fact that there are little cracks in the Boks' game; scrummaging being one of them. So they will look at it as an area to attack us.

"Gert also worked with some of the Bok forwards for a while, so he is familiar with the scrum, which will be an advantage for Ireland."

Coetzee said the Springboks also had to add something "extra" to their game against Ireland. "The Boks are going to need a little more than their high-pressure kicking game to beat Ireland . We need to strike a balance between kicking and having a go with ball in hand. When we have a chance on attack we should retain possession and go for it, since we have quality backline players."

The team scored four well- worked tries against Italy by employing a running game on attack, and with players like wing Bryan Habana, centre Jaque Fourie and scrumhalf Fourie du Preez on form, it may be wise to use them as attacking weapons against Ireland.

Despite being the Boks' last game on tour following a physically draining season, Coetzee had no doubt SA has what it takes to beat Ireland. But he said they had to be in the right frame of mind to achieve this feat.

"This team has a quality core of players and they have all the experience and skill they need to win," said Coetzee. "But they have to approach this game like a World Cup final. They have to be technically and tactically astute and have to put their bodies on the line for the full 80 minutes. If they run onto the field with one foot on the plane because they are excited to come home, it could backfire."