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Are you getting tired of all the talk from the Wallabies about their scrum? I know the press ask questions that require some answer.
But I’d much rather hear the players and coaches just say something like ‘There’s no point talking about what we expect from the scrums this weekend. We know we haven’t got it right yet but we’re working hard to improve.’
Cliché or not, it’s got to be better that the talk we keep hearing about how ‘we’re improving’ or ‘we may have an advantage because a team hasn’t played under the new law interpretations’ or ‘we’re baffled by some of the refereeing decisions’.
This week I’ve seen plenty of Wallaby fans complaining the referee was favouring England at scrum time last weekend and even suggestions referees are taking a preconceived negative view of the Wallabies scrum into matches because of past issues.
The issue that most people seem to have focussed on this week is the scrummaging of Mako Vunipola and whether he was ‘boring in’ or ‘angling in’ on Ben Alexander, which should have resulted in penalties to the Wallabies, when in fact England received the penalties for Alexander standing up under pressure.
Was this the case? In my video today I’ve analysed all 17 scrums that were decided in the match and given my opinion on how accurate the referee was.
You’ll see in just about every scrum the Wallabies backrow are ineffective and are contributing to making it even more difficult for the props.
However, there’s already enough to consider today without adding what is another topic in itself.
The importance of the backrow is a topic I’ve covered in detail previously and is something I am insistent on as a coach.
If you want to know my views on this topic this video and this one explain them.
Do you agree with my assessments on the scrum rulings against England?