South Africa's dominance of the set-piece lay the foundation for their 22-17 win in the series opener in Durban on Saturday and Mtawarira said the former France international's role must not be underestimated.

"We worked very hard on our scrum and had some good sessions during the week with Pieter de Villiers and it was a good start," he told reporters.

"He was a great scrummager in his time and he is a great well of knowledge, the best guy to learn from.

"Everyone was able to do as expected of him and we had a couple of new faces (debutant Coenie Oosthuizen and the recalled Adriaan Strauss) that gelled together well.

"We can definitely take a lot of confidence out of our scrumming in the first test," added Mtawarira.

South Africa's pressure in the scrums saw England capitulating and conceding three free-kicks and two penalties at the set-piece.

The Sharks front-ranker said that although Boks took a while to get going it was heartening to see the way things gelled as the match progressed.

"We needed to get used to each other in the first half, but in the second half we got into our game, we got on the front foot."