The Wallabies scrum is under pressure again. The Welsh were able to re-expose the Wallabies Achilles heel on Saturday, and it was not pretty.
A number of posters have indicated that they thought the Wallabies were dominant until Stephen Moore came on for Tatafu Polota-Nau. This is incorrect.
While Polota-Nau was on the field there were three scrums. The first saw the Wallabies win their own feed confidently driving forward, the referee missed Benn Robinson scrummaging with a hand on the ground though.
The second scrum saw the Wallabies win their own feed but under intense pressure and the front row was badly buckled before the ball was cleared.
The third scrum was a Welsh feed but finished with a free-kick to Wales as the Wallabies drove early.
There is no Wallaby dominance there, if there is a slight edge it is to Wales.
In the second half the scrum battle clearly went to the visitors, as well as Moore coming in for Polota-Nau, we saw Robinson replaced by Ben Alexander and Simmons’s scrummaging position taken by Dave Dennis.
Sekope Kepu had more and more trouble with Gethin Jenkins as the match progressed and Adam Jones had a field day.
Why is this happening again? Dan Palmer scrummaged very well in his debut Test match against Scotland. We saw the scrum deteriorate when he was replaced by Alexander. A scrum penalty against Australia led to Scotland winning the match, yet it is Alexander who stayed in the team for Wales.
With James Horwill injured, no driving second rower has been included in the match day 22. Rob Simmons and Nathan Sharpe are both predominantly lineout forwards; their scrummaging is not as good as Horwill, Sitaleki Timani or Kane Douglas.
Timani was injured against Scotland but I’ve seen newspaper photos of him involved in contact at Wallabies training since then. Timani, unlike, say, Quade Cooper, hasn’t been released from the Wallaby squad suggesting he is available. Kane Douglas was released from the squad but in my opinion should not have been.
Robbie Deans has been electing to cover the bench second rower position with Dave Dennis, who is predominantly a number 6. Deans appears to have wholeheartedly embraced the practice that has plagued Australian rugby for over a decade and is selecting players who are mobile while allowing the scrum to suffer.
This selection policy has brought a series win against Wales but by the narrowest of margins.
So how do we fix this? The immediate selection decisions that should apply for this week are to return Alexander for Palmer and to bring in Timani and Douglas at the expense of one of Rob Simmons and Nathan Sharpe. Based on current performance, I’d keep Sharpe.
If Deans is prepared to go with a 5-2 split on the bench he can keep the rest of his pack the same, if he wants to retain a 4-3 split then Michael Hooper has to make way.
Hooper is the one to make way not due to the knock-ons he made when he came on last week but due to Dave Dennis being the reserve lineout caller if anything happens to Sharpe.
Timani and Douglas have their doubters but playing half a game each is well within their capabilities. There is a risk if Sharpe gets injured early but the option to still use Dennis as a second row back up exists to ensure that the big boys aren’t too slow to play the game that Deans wants.
I know that Caderyn Neville and Hugh Pyle have their fans but both have issues in contact where they are a little high. This is in both the tackle and at the breakdown. I’d like to see them improve this before they get higher honours.
Also, the Rebels scrum is the worst of the Australian clubs in Super Rugby by a large margin, Neville and Pyle have to shoulder a large piece of that responsibility. Based on the performance of the Rebels scrum we have no evidence to believe that Neville or Pyle can help improve the Wallaby one.
The Wallabies may have won this series but they haven’t dominatede. The scrum woes are a huge concern as the Rugby Championship looms later in the year.
The scrum has been a problem for a decade now, unlike prior years there are some obvious selections available to fix it.
Will Deans make those selection decisions for this final Test?
Brumby fan
Guest
Jeznez, take another look at the scrum collapse at the end of the Scotland game. Like many other commentators you've rewritten history! It was Slipper and not Alexander that got penalised to lose the game. I'm not arguing in favour of Alexander, just suggesting that you base your criticisms on the facts.
Mike
Guest
"The very first scrum when Robinson had his hand on the ground" I saw Tony Woodcock do the same during RWC, and I have seen other props do it as well. I think one of them was Jannie du P. The smart ones do it when the ref isn't looking. Illegal? sure. Should be picked up and penalised? Definitely. But it doesn't make Robinson a worse prop, nor our scrum a worse scrum, just because we do what other scrums are doing.
Mike
Guest
Jez, you have been fairly specific, but its all been on matters of interpretation. I just don't see that our scrum was as bad as you paint in either match against Wales. In each case where it really looks like we had the wood on the other side you interpret it favourably to them in some way. The Jenkins thing is an example - he drops his shoulders and you say he was just trying to milk a penalty and didn't quite pull it off, whereas if Alexander does the same thing, you say it was lack of skill.
Mike
Guest
Why is Alexander's shoulders-below-hips a "poorly executed attempt to get low", while when Geithin Jenkins does it you say he was trying to milk a penalty?
jeznez
Roar Guru
ARF - if the Wallaby scrum was at least stable on its own ball then I would be singing from the rafters. The simple fact is that there are selection options available to correct this. You don't think the Wallabies have been dominated in this area and I think you are wrong. I've been fairly specific in my discussion of the topic while you seem to be talking in generalities. Let me be as explicit as possible, the Wallabies only went forward in the scrum twice last Saturday: 1. The very first scrum when Robinson had his hand on the ground 2. The second last when both Kepu and Alexander released their binds and then pushed back after Wales stopped. Both of those instances involved illegalities by our scrum. Please tell me the instances where you thought the Aussie scrum was good?
Adelaide rugby fan
Guest
In all your writing here you look to justify "Wallabies’ scrum falling apart again" = of course "it looks to you" that Jenkins tried to milk penalty. he was not collapsing the scrum because it would contradict "Wallabies’ scrum falling apart again". Objectivity cannot be used here?
jeznez
Roar Guru
I've submitted another article reviewing the full propping depth in Oz - the editors may be holding it back so that I don't completely saturate the roar of the crowd column with articles on scrums! I do suggest in it that Holmes and Alexander swapping Super Teams could be beneficial for both. It would allow that exact selection experiment to be seen twice a year - with the only caveat that the Brumbies are much lighter in the second row needing to be taken into account.
Mike
Guest
You may be right. But the very fact we can think that way shows that Australia has just a little bit more depth in front rowers than we had a few years ago. Long way still to go however.
Red Kev
Guest
I would really like to see a Holmes-Moore-Palmer front row for the Wallabies. Or playing against a Robinson-TPN-Kepu front row in a trial. I think the former would win.
Bakkies
Guest
It's a matter of pleasing the selectors. He was the Wallabies incumbent before his string of injuries. Just goes to show a few years out of test rugby in Australia can be the end for some. Hopefully he gets another crack to really prove himself with a more consistent run in the team.
Worlds biggest
Guest
The scrum has been an issue for 10 years, when is the penny going to drop ? We have been hearing for years from the media that the scrum is improving, this is bollox. Wallaby supporters including myself get excited when we hold up a scrum against superior opposition. We are battle hardened when it comes to scrum collapses, Al Baxter, Bill Young, Ben Alexander et al...Pato Noriega had a few years to rectify it and now Andrew Blades has the unenviable task. Arguably two of our best scrummagers of the last dozen years. If these guys can't right the ship then what is the solution.
Ben S
Roar Guru
Rees didn't start the first Test. Lee Mears did.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Mike if you look at the scrums just prior, it looked to me like he dropped the third last scrum but it just got reset Then the second last Kepu dropped his bind and Jenkins stood up to appeal to the ref for the penalty - only problem was the scrum wasn't over and we put a shunt on and nearly got them through 90. Final scrum and it looked like he went straight down, when he got up - he got up facing away from the ref and took a very long time to look around and see which way the penalty had gone. In years gone by a number of opposition props have had great success pulling penalties against the Wallabies - I thought Pollock's scrum management was pretty spot on. Of course I am speculating as to Jenkins' intent but it looked to me in the last three scrums that he was trying to pull a penalty.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Bakkies, I wanted him there last year as well. Has been a long way back from injury for him but at 29 and particularly as a prop you have a few more years in you.
Bakkies
Guest
I say Greg Holmes is done at test level otherwise he would have of got selected again last year.
Mike
Guest
"I know Wales gave away the scrum penalty at the death on Saturday but I think Jenkins dropped it in the hope of pulling a penalty, not because he was under pressure." Jez, if true, that would be astounding, don't you think? To risk that in your own quarter when you are ahead by one point? I really wasn't seeing our scrum going backwards all the time, but maybe I should have a look at it again.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Mike - we are much better than we were but I think we have been clearly showed up over the last three matches. I know Wales gave away the scrum penalty at the death on Saturday but I think Jenkins dropped it in the hope of pulling a penalty, not because he was under pressure. Was pretty clear on almost all scrum feeds - both theirs and ours that our scrum was going backwards and much more of that and our boys will be getting penalised on suspicion again. In all three matches what has been a reasonably close scrum contest has become one sided once Alexander has come on. Anyway - this article was focussed on immediate selection options available to Deans - I've seen on the team announcement that we finally have a big bopper in Timani in the second row and a full complement of three specialist locks in the squad so that is good. Am frustrated that Alexander has held his place though. Have submitted another article looking at overall propping depth and trying to consider challenges to us improving further - hopefully they'll publish it overnight.
Mike
Guest
I agree we have a long way to go with our scrum, and its good to see Jez' focus on it. But I am not sure that we are quite as bad as some of the posts above paint us. The packs of other top tier nations also have their bad moments, which are often glossed over by critics of the Australian scrum. As best I recall, Wales was the team that lost crucial points in the last test when their experienced prop collapsed the scrum. And over the last three matches, I don't see that Wales or Scotland dominated us; in fact, I am not even sure they have had the edge on us. But sure, we have a long way to go and need to keep working on it. Palmer has been given a go and I would like to see more of him, but I am not yet convinced that he is clearly our best tighthead at test level. He will need time to prove that. I think Kepu is improving. Robinson is still far and away our best loosehead.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
jeznez I just saw the team and was suprised to see Alexander on the bench again. Obviously he's chosen for his work in the loose as a sub, but he is too much of a liability in the scrum. Palmer should have been there or if they insisted on a player for the loose Slipper. In november when there are four props in the 23 all four will battle it out (except Alexander, one hopes). Maybe Timani's selection will power up the props a little. Of course Jones and Jenkins were I think the first choice Lions props after Vickery suffered or was wrongly penalised depending on opinions, so they are a really formidable pair as they showed last week, probably better than any pair in the Rugby championship. It will be a ferocious contest in there on saturday.
jeznez
Roar Guru
His brother does play for Fiji - I believe Tongan dad and Fijian mother, born in Oz. Campese plays for Fiji, Salesi for the Wallabies and a younger brother has played for the Tongan 7s side.