Social media is a funny beast. It’s hard to know what, if any, part our #ScrumStraightJoe campaign from last week played in the Wallabies exceptional 33-13 Rugby World Cup win over England at Twickenham, but it’s certain that the Wallabies’ scrum did a job on their opposition.
When Romain Poite called time off in the 49th minute, England’s scrummaging Plan A was laid bare.
“Three times, you were definitely not straight,” Poite told England loosehead Joe Marler, complete with hand gestures illustrating the less-than-subtle ploy. Marler is half hunched over, ironically, in the one moment when it would’ve paid to employ a straighter posture.
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Marler attempts to interject, and asks if Wallabies tighthead Sekope Kepu is also straight.
“Yes, he is,” Poite replies. “Now, you have to be very disciplined and get a straight angle, alright?”
The message was clear. For whatever reason, Poite was all over the English pack’s liberal interpretation of what constitutes packing straight, and here he was, a French referee with a long history of whistling the Australian scrum off the park, in the most decisive moment of the biggest pool game in Rugby World Cup history, giving the English loosehead his last rites.
“Number 1; not straight,” Poite reiterated the penalty, as Marler walked backwards toward the England defensive line.
After Wallabies flyhalf Bernard Foley kicked the penalty, to put Australia ahead 20-3, Marler was replaced by Mako Vunipola.
#ScrumStraightJoe had worked.
The scrum immediately before this one, about four minutes earlier, was won by the Wallabies eventually after England wheeled it, but Poite saw Marler’s outside shoulder bending toward the inside right in front of him.
Seven minutes before halftime, Poite looked like he was going to penalise Australia for Kepu collapsing, only to turn around and point toward the Wallabies after deciding that it was Marler’s boring in that had caused the Wallabies to go down. From the penalty and resulting lineout, Australia went two phases to the left, before Foley cut back to the open side with Beale on his inside.
They both broke through the English line and Foley scored his second try for the match. A 17-3 lead at the break was just about perfect for the Wallabies.
There had been a lot of talk over the last week highlighting and defending the English scrum tactics, in the mainstream media, but especially in the online rugby media and on social media, of which we obviously had our two cents as well.
Much of it was to point out the obvious illegalities, while plenty of it was just good old banter. However, one thing became clear to me, that once English pundits and ex-players started returning serve with counter-claims of issues with the Wallabies maul, there was a genuine fear that the Wallabies scrum was good enough to win scrum penalties in their own right.
And this was going to be an issue for England, whose game is so strenuously built around their scrummaging.
Throughout the tournament, and several times in this game through Owen Farrell, England would kick from their half to a point around the opposition ten-metre line, ideally somewhere near the 15m ‘tramline’, which would be contested by their winger. If they got the ball back, well and good; if they knocked it on, they could scrum for a penalty.
So even exiting out of their own half involved a scrum strategy. But with Poite now onto them, and with a 17-point deficit, England very quickly needed a plan B.
And they just couldn’t find one.
Sure, they found some points midway through the second half on the back of some loose Wallabies’ passing, and Farrell even kicked a penalty when Beale was forced to clean up with little Wallabies support around him. But by this stage, the panic had begun to set in.
And by the time Farrell found himself yellow-carded out of the match inside the last ten – in which Sam Burgess could easily have gone too, for his high shot on Michael Hooper – that panic made way for a depressing realisation that England’s time in this tournament was done.
When they needed something from some fairly talented players, England came up empty.
They had been smashed at the breakdown from the outset, with David Pocock having a field day, to the extent that Chris Robshaw’s only involvement in the match appeared to be to take lectures from an increasingly frustrated French referee.
Farrell was well contained and couldn’t unlock his midfield, while Foley’s excellent kicking game kept the ball away from the left corner fullback Mike Brown prefers to run from.
And once the scrum was no longer an option, England had nothing. The playbook had only blank pages.
And while it’s cool to think #ScrumStraightJoe might have played a part in that, the reality is it might not have made any difference at all. But the overall focus on the English scrummaging tactics must’ve had an impact, because you could see the looks on their faces penalty after penalty.
‘But we were getting away with that last week?’
In the overall scheme of things, the Wallabies will know there is still much to work on before taking on Wales next weekend. They were mostly excellent, but certainly not perfect. They can certainly find more improvement before coming back to ‘Twickers’ next weekend.
But for now there’s a well-deserved celebration to be had, too, to mark what may well be the perception about the Australian scrum finally changing.
And what a time it suddenly is, to be an Australian rugby fan!
Sluggy
Roar Guru
Brett, please email FOF that piccy I sent you. It'll make his day!
Sluggy
Roar Guru
I'm sure they can sort something out. He could play a lot for Toulon, and still do the 7s, and Aust. might not even qualify for Rio. It was interesting that Carter was called into the squad, from a short term contract with ??Bordeaux??. Obviously not picking guys playing overseas doesn't apply where they have a current ARU/Super contract as well. So the sabattical guys can still be selected, despite the limits of the 'Giteau' proviso. This is pretty clever actually. If a player, in say October in the last season of a T14 contract, signs a contract for next season post T14 (June?) to return to a Super side, they can pick him in the November window.
Mike
Guest
No you didn't Peter. You were berating Cheika for failing to choose Quade, who was the only one (according to you) who could get the most out of our backline.
Mike
Guest
Wrong Peter, you made all of those claims including the ones I quoted verbatim, and now you are trying to pretend otherwise. The majority of your verbose claims prior to this match were proven wrong, but unlike some others, you do not have the grace or the moral courage to admit you were wrong, about anything. Your claim about Robinson is rubbish and your stats false, as we have already established. The RESULTS show that Sio is no more than a mediocre scrummager. And why are you so obsessed with Robinson anyway? "Sio won the drive , the english guy hinged and wrong person was penalised." There is no such thing as a prop ":winning the drive" - that can apply to a pack. You are simply putting your ignorance about scrums on display yet again. He packed too far forward and the English TH prop dumped him - all within the laws. The violation came when Sio lost his bind and was rightly penalised. Your attempt to deny that the Australians made any mistakes at all in the scrummaging is typical, but sad.
Mike
Guest
Peter, you are the one who keeps on bringing up Robinson. Did he steal your girl, dog, sheep etc? ;) Jameswm, Sio was done in that first scrum. He made a mistake and was beaten by a more experienced TH. Its no shame, it happens to everyone at some point. I appreciate that its very tempting to proclaim that we are the world's greatest scrummagers who never make mistakes, and even when we lose a scrum, to claim "we wuz robbed". But reality doesn't work like that. ll you are doing is showing your ignorance of a quite common technique.
Tiger
Guest
Whomever is without sin amongst you, let him cast the first stone. News flash gents, all teams fracture the laws. It's the nature of the beast!
Chancho
Roar Rookie
Cheers Jez! Yeah, those first 2 tries in the Fiji game were magic... it was still/stable for 10 seconds or so before any movement... it's sort of text book stuff. Oh, look, no arguments from me re Australia's scrum... in the past it seemed like we were covering up our deficiencies.... now it feels like this is part of our game where we can be competitive.
JimmyB
Guest
Flood is not head and shoulders above Farrell or Ford...not even close. It's clearly not easier to get from Toulouse to London than it is from Leicester to London. Brock James is a fly half, Nick Phipps is a scrum half. They're quite different positions.
ThugbyFan
Guest
Congratulations to Brett and the power of Twitter in the #ScrumStraightJoe campaign. I now offer the next twitter campaign. Every recent match I have seen Ireland play in, their forwards constantly leap into or over the tackled player or ruck and stay there bridged over the ball, and the referees seem to interpret this as "protecting the ball". In the WR Laws, Rule 15:7 (c) says "No player may fall on or over the players lying on the ground after a tackle with the ball between or near to them." and 16: 3 (a) "Players in a ruck must endeavour to stay on their feet," and (b) "A player must not intentionally fall or kneel in a ruck. This is dangerous play." From my angle, when Ireland players engage in a contest for the ball, they break all of these rules but refs don't ping them for it. Ireland is a dark horse in this RWC, quietly wiping the floor with all before them. However, like the English scrum, this part of their playbook drives me insane. I just wish I was rich like Elvis Presley so I could throw empty beer bottles at the TV every time I see this happen, for I would need about 30 TV a day. Brett my man, is there something that I am not seeing? I know when I played (about the 15th century it feels like), we would have been caned by the referee for this caper.
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
Welsh fans don't fancy their scrum! Believe me, they are not happy with it. Next Saturday's match should be a ripper.
the french
Roar Rookie
Davo i am not sure i fully agree with the Auatralian or English policies (or the french either where they have 3 saffas in the national team). I don't have another answer except picking the best players wherever they are at the time. Rugby is becoming this massive global sport like basketball or soccer and the way i see it is that nothing will stop that evolution so we simply need to deal with this (except for the AB who can afford to hold on). Set aside the Armitage bros who could be both a formidable force for England, i think Toby Flood is head and shoulders a better five eight than Farrell or Ford and the moment he signed for Toulouse he kissed good bye his WC ambitions. Is this right? Dont thinl so, it is easier to get from Toulouse to london than from leicester to London. For Australia, we're struggling with scrum halves and promising young rebel nick stirzaker is a bit raw still, however Brock James has been killing it consistently at Clermont for years. To me he can challenge Phipps for a position especially when you see him dishing out bricks on a frequent basis. And i dont think England will suffer from that because they have a good grass roots system, strong and historical teams, a good league that can guarantee money and a decent standard of play. It will increase competiton and that is only beneficial to England. France and Australia might struggle a bit because their grass roots system is not as strong to start with so players need to develop in one way or another.
ThugbyFan
Guest
You're pretty right there Brett, except I gave Pocock a 19 (he lost a point cause some pommy tackled him a couple of times), Hooper and Foley a 12, Sio a 10, and everyone else a 9. And I KNOW its out of 10. :) Seriously though, I have been trying to find this out and no-one will answer. Who was the official man of the match? Can anyone tell me? Some wag mate of mine told me it was a pommy forward, are they pulling my leg?
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
Pocock was phenomenal all over the park. He goes from ground to feet in a flash. Makes the oppo look like they are in slow motion.
Jerry
Guest
#STFU #FFS #WATCHTHEGAMEANDSTAYOFFTWITTER
Jerry
Guest
"Add to that, 2 thirds (!!) of his yellow cards have come since the 2011 RWC win" 2/3 being "2" of course.
Shane D
Roar Rookie
Gregory, all teams will point out something to the ref pre-game if they feel the opposition is getting away with something. Samething occurs in the post game report the coaches do for the refs. It's not an Australian thing at all. The AB's did it post the Sydney game where they believed that Sio was changing his bind illegally. They made sure Owens was aware of what they thought was going on.
Shane D
Roar Rookie
The Georgian captain played 47 minutes & was in a team beaten by 33 points & but the MoTM. Interesting system.
PeterK
Roar Guru
#keepit legal7black succinct and encompassing
JimmyB
Guest
Congratulations Brett. Who knew? Twitter works. I bet that you're feeling more than a little omnipotent right about now. You should tackle world hunger for your next trick and of course in about 12 months or so, if you're feeling dissatisfied with Malcolm Turnbull, you know that you've got the power...:)
Martin English
Roar Rookie
I'd be careful about campaigning for "that" number 7 to be penalised too much. I still remember how he celebrated his second ever yellow card http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/newzealand/11052726/New-Zealand-51-Australia-20-Ritchie-McCaw-scores-two-tries-as-All-Blacks-beat-Wallabies-in-Rugby-Championship.html There's an interesting article from a Kiwi paper showing how McCaw has been receiving more penalties per game as the years go on; See http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/72255714/richie-mccaw-is-illdisciplined--the-stats-prove-it The money quote is "In his 40 test starts since winning the World Cup, McCaw has averaged 1.48 penalties per match. In his last 20, the rate has increased to 1.7 and in his last ten, to 2 penalties per match." Add to that, 2 thirds (!!) of his yellow cards have come since the 2011 RWC win :) Is he getting older, slower, or are the refs harder on him than they used to be ?