Standby hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau is expected to meet up with the Wallabies squad in London on Monday after being flown in as cover for injured hooker Stephen Moore.
Moore’s back twinge is being monitored following his late withdrawal from the 25-16 Test win over Wales.
The Wallabies have relocated from Cardiff to London, where they are expecting to be bombarded with pressure over their scrum meltdown at the Millennium Stadium ahead of this weekend’s Test against England.
“Certainly it was a step back for us there,” Moore said.
“Just from talking to the boys today, they’re not happy with the way things went there, so it is obviously a huge test this weekend.”
The Australians face a disrupted preparation for Twickenham with more than half the squad involved in a match against fifth-placed English Premiership club Leicester on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning AEDT).
The Berrick Barnes-captained side will give the fringe players a chance to press for a Test spot.
“If you look at last year, a number of players emerged out of the midweek fixtures,” coach Robbie Deans said.
“Kurtley Beale played his first game at fullback and Quade Cooper played flyhalf and have both have since established themselves in the Test side.
“Sometimes until you provide an opportunity, you don’t know how players will respond.”
Wallabies team to play Leicester: Peter Hynes, Rod Davies, Pat McCabe, Anthony Fainga’a, Lachie Turner, Berrick Barnes (capt), Luke Burgess, Richard Brown, Matt Hodgson, Scott Higginbotham, Rob Simmons, Van Humphries, Salesi Ma’afu, Huia Edmonds, James Slipper. Res: Saia Fainga’a, Ben Daley, Dean Mumm, Pat McCutcheon, Nick Phipps, Matt Giteau, Luke Morahan.
plugger
Guest
Then I suggest they emulate the northern hemisphere players and take steroids, epo, and growth hormone to gain parity, or they could simply hinge the scrum like the northern boys do. Completely illegal, but what do the refs care?
CraigB
Roar Guru
If he is now fit enopugh to tour (1 week in), why wasn't he selected in the first place??
Peter K
Guest
There is a reason behind the madness of the style of loose binding by locks in the Wallabies. This allows the props to illegally bore in AND the lock to move with him making it far harder for a ref to pick since they often look to see if the prop has detached from the lock. Additionally the no 8 detaches and binds on just that lock thus deilvering 5 of the scrum (loosehead, hooker, lock, flanker and no 8) on just the hooker at an angle. It used to work because they would choose when to do this. They would initially bind tight then on a call the lock release the bind and drive behind the prop at an angle. Now they are a total shambles, cant even cheat well.
Who Needs Melon
Guest
To the point of THIS article though: I'm happy TPNs being flown out there. I'm a big fan of his. I just hope he's not being rushed back too soon. We need him long term - not just at this particualr point in time.
Who Needs Melon
Guest
I just posted on Franks article that the not-100%-fitness of the Bens must be one factor but this article raises another good point being that you could argue that a few percentage points off 100% fitness of a couple of the 8 people involved would make that much of a difference. I'd love to see the overhead footage mentioned in this article. It would make a great training tool. I was always taught the scrum should strive to be a single unit - the hand curled into a fist or the bundle of sticks mentioned in this article. I didn't know there were any other schools of thought!
BennO
Guest
I agree that is a very worthwhile article. Curiously, as a second rower I played at two different high schools and was told to use differnet binds at each school. At one school we used what the article calls the Australian style where our tightest bind was on the prop and the other had us bind tightest onto the other second rower. At the former school, we had a dominant scrum despite finishing last in the comp. At the second our scrum held it's own but we rarely won tightheads. THat's not evidence in support of one or the other, probably just that a well coached scrum will out do a poorly coached scrum every time.
The Other Reds Fan.
Guest
That is a really worthwhile article. I am now wondering if Jim Williams needs to be replaced or if a scrum coach with a proven track record needs to be added rather than simply blame and replace players (like swapping chairs on the Titanic).
dingo
Guest
There's an interesting article on our scrum problems written from a south african perspective here http://www.sarugby.com/2010/11/07/why-the-wallaby-scrum-flops/