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One week has made a massive difference to the Wallaby scrum. There are two key points to note. Firstly, England did not scrummage as well as France managed the week before.
Secondly, the Wallabies had the services of Ben Alexander and Sitaleki Timani.
Alexander in particular made an impact, and the coaching staff should persist with him at tighthead.
The game against England provided an enjoyable series of scrum battles, with Australia holding the ascendancy for the majority of the match.
However it didn’t all go the Wallabies way. In the 62nd minute, the English scrum and Mako Vunipola struck back with Alexander airborne.
The telecast in Singapore failed to show the engagement of this scrum live or in replay so I can’t comment too much on it. Based on the advantage that Australia enjoyed throughout the match, it seems likely that this scrum was a lapse in concentration and accuracy.
Romaine Poite was much more lenient on tighthead binds compared to Nigel Owens the week before. Poite allowed the tightheads on both sides to bind on the upper arm, something Owens penalised.
Joe Marler in particular struggled with the hit and with his bind. Due to these difficulties, Marler was penalised a few times for collapsing or using his hand on the ground.
Although both tightheads were binding on the upper arm, I do not think either Alexander or Dan Cole was pulling down, and had no problem with the refereeing interpretation.
More problematic was the fact that Poite also allowed the breakaways to be loosely bound to the scrum.
Tom Wood, the replacement blindside, managed a turnover after an Australian scrum had gone forward by only having his hand connected to the scrum and getting onto Wycliff Palu quickly.
Chris Robshaw also spent a lot of time at the scrum, loosely bound. Wood may have earned his side a turnover through the tactic, but overall the lack of commitment to the scrum by the England flankers helped hand the advantage to Australia.
I think the Aussie breakaways can take satisfaction from a job well done this week. They were much tighter than in the France game, and they gave their front row some excellent drive.
A couple of points about the Aussie scrum. Benn Robinson must be coming perilously close to being called for not packing straight.
You could see on a few of the scrum camera shots that he is angling in quite a bit. This is exacerbated by him not popping his shoulder in front of the hooker.
Robinson is setting up with his shoulder under Tatafu Polota-Nau’s armpit. The result of this is that TPN is winding up as a point that can be driven into the opposition front row.
The Wallabies and TPN used this to great advantage during scrums at the 10 minute mark and at 16 and a half minutes.
During both of these scrums, Polota-Nau was able to disrupt the bind between Cole and Tom Youngs through simple, hard, straight driving. Robinson drove along behind and both scrums wheeled, with Alexander going forward on his side as well.
Thomas Waldrom saved the first scrum with some excellent number eight play, breaking as the scrum wheeled and picking the ball up before it went through 90 degrees.
In the second scrum, Australia got rewarded for their good work and clinched a tighthead.
For those few Roarers who criticise Polota-Nau’s scrummaging, I suggest watching the footage of those scrums. The overhead camera angle gave a great view of his dominant performance.
The Australian scrum needs to aim for greater improvement. I didn’t see the New Zealand versus Italy game, but Tony Woodcock apparently popped Martin Castrogiovanni a couple of times on the weekend.
There is no doubt that Castrogiovanni and his teammates will be licking their wounds, making plans and setting out to ensure that their reputation as a strong pack is maintained.
I for one cannot wait for the next instalment of this northern tour.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.