Scottish breakdown expert Richie Gray has spent a busy two weeks with the Blitzboks in Stellenbosch fine-tuning their skills in that area as the team prepares for the Rio Olympics.

The breakdown has become as important in sevens in as it is fifteens and Gray‚ who spent three seasons with the Springboks under Heyneke Meyer‚ is one of the best in the business in that area of the game.

He was widely hailed as one of the successes of the Meyer tenure with the Boks regularly bossing the ball on the deck.

Players such as Francois Louw‚ Duane Vermeulen‚ Bismarck du Plessis‚ Coenie Oosthuizen and several others flourished at the breakdown after working with Gray.

And Blitzboks coach Neil Powell felt it necessary to bring Gray again for another stint as his team gradually lost their impact at the breakdown as the recent 2015-16 World Sevens Series season wore on.

Gray initially worked with the Blitzboks last November and the results showed as they dominated that aspect of the game in the first two tournaments of the year. SA won on home soil in Cape Town in the second round of the series.

“Richie has been killing the guys in training‚” Powell said. “They really love working with him but they know when he is here they are in for a hard time and a tough session.

“Seeing as the breakdown and rucks are the most important areas in sevens it’s been vital having him here.

“He’s spent a lot of time looking at the players’ techniques at a ruck and then coaching them to be far more effective in that area of the game.

“There is also a conditioning component within the breakdown work that fits in with our overall conditioning strategy for the Olympics.

“Richie is such a specialist in this area and he really helped us. We were excellent at the breakdown in the early part of the season but we fell away a bit towards the end.

“Richie’s main aim is for the players to maintain a low body position when entering rucks. He showed us clips from earlier in the year when we were nice and low and then later in the season we were more upright. He has a saying that the ‘low man wins the breakdown’.

“When I started as coach my main goal was to improve two areas – the ruck/breakdown and kicks-offs/restarts. We continue to work hard on those crucial aspects.”

Gray leaves the team on Saturday and at this stage it’s unclear whether he will return for another stint before the Olympics.

“We’re trying to get him back again before the Olympics or even get him down for a few days in Rio before the tournament‚” Powell said. “But nothing is set in stone yet because he has some other commitments as well.”

The Blitzboks play a friendly tournament against Namibia‚ Zimbabwe‚ Western Province and an Invitational Squad in Stellenbosch on Friday and Saturday as part of their preparations for Rio.

“We needed competitive matches at this stage of our preparation and hopefully this is exactly what we will get‚” Powell said.

“You can train as hard and as much as you like‚ but nothing beats the real time of matches. Your decision-making‚ fitness and overall skills comes to the fore in a match and those are some of the elements I am looking for this weekend.”