The 1937 South Africa touring side to New Zealand famously received a telegram of encouragement from their chairman of selectors before the international series began. It said: "Skrum, skrum, skrum" which needs little translation from Afrikaans and it is what their successors of 2007 will need to do against England in Saturday's World Cup final.

The scrum is part of Springbok lore and they, more than anyone, will know how important it is to stand up to England's rejuvenated set piece. They will feel happy enough that their lineout is working but can the scrum do the same? For all that South Africa won their semi-final comfortably enough, Argentina suggested that the nuts and bolts of their scrum could yet be undone by Andrew Sheridan and company.

In Os du Randt, of course, the Springboks have a virtual scrum coach in the front row. At 35, there is little he does not know about that phase of play and Graham Rowntree, England's scrum coach, happily described him as one of the great international props. But if their back row is to function as well as it has the potential to do, South Africa cannot allow their scrum to take a backward step and they will recall that, even in the pool match with England when they won 36-0, they lost three scrums and made little impact on the lineout.

Which only goes to show that set-piece play is part of the result but not the whole. Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha and Juan Smith can be trusted to do the business at the lineout but the battle of the back rows could be decisive since that is where England have improved so markedly the longer this tournament has progressed. Smith, Schalk Burger and Danie Rossouw offer strength, pace and intelligence around the park but there have been temperamental signs from both Smith and Burger which they must keep in check.

An over-enthusiastic high tackle by Burger cost him a two-match suspension and Smith was seriously upset in that same opening pool game with Samoa. Composure wins tight games and this is what John Smit hammered into his players in the second half of the quarter-final with Fiji, when the Springboks were hanging on against an unexpected Pacific revival. Smit knows from direct experience that England, led with great glee by Mark Regan, will try to work their way under Springbok skins and his players must be big enough to shrug it off.