How will the dynamics of the scrum work in the England series?

England are on the rise again, and at the core of their renewal is the set-piece. It has always been an area of traditional strength for English teams of the past, and it became Eddie Jones’ sensible ‘first fix’ after the World Cup debacle.

There was not a lot wrong with England’s lineout in any case, but even that department has improved slightly on Steve Borthwick’s watch. In their last three games of the Six Nations against Ireland, Wales and France, England lost only one of their 32 lineout throws. Even more significantly, only two other throws of that 32 were seriously contested by the opposition.

Moreover, either George Kruis or Maro Itoje stole 10 of the 34 opposition deliveries to the lineout, a massive 30% takeaway ratio. Six of those steals occurred in their own red zone (or 22m area) with the England defence under pressure.

While the England lineout went from very good to better, it was the scrum that was in need of urgent repair. The psychological damage done by the performance of the Wallaby scrum at Twickenham on the third October 2015 was far-reaching and cannot be underestimated.

I believe that the propaganda campaign surrounding Joe Marler’s ‘angle’ affected not only his showing in that game, but also Eddie Jones’ decision to leave him at home this summer. There is little doubt that campaign would have been revived with some gusto had he toured, especially as the same referee at Twickenham is in place for the first Test at Brisbane – Frenchman Romain Poite.

Poite’s presence as chief arbiter ratchets up the importance of the scrum several notches. Of all the top international panel referees, Poite has demonstrated that he is the one most willing to escalate quickly from penalties to yellow cards at scrum-time for technical offences. Think Ben Alexander in the third Test of the Lions series in 2013, or Gethin Jenkins in the England-Wales Six Nations encounter the following year. When Romain refs a Test match, as a prop you have to be seen to be clean.

The improvement in England’s scrum performance from the World Cup has been led by veteran tight-head prop Dan Cole and the reintroduction of Dylan Hartley at hooker. With Marler trying to rebuild his reputation, it is Cole and Hartley who have had the most influence on England’s scrum in 2016.

The bare statistics look like this:

England won six penalties on their feed while conceding one, but conceded seven penalties on opposition ball while clawing back two. England completed 10 out of their 17 feeds (59%) successfully, but only 12 of 22 (54%) were completed on the opposition ball.

The stats suggest that England’s scrum:
• Is not a dominant force (roughly on a par with those of Wales, Ireland and France)
• Is better prepared than before to use the ball, rather than ‘long-scrum’ for penalties
• Vulnerable to sustained pressure on the opposition feed

So much for the stats. Now let’s take a look at how that’s reflected in live action sequences, starting with some examples of how England defend on the opposition put-in.

Of the seven England scrum pens conceded, six were called on Dan Cole the English tight-head prop. Cole is one of the taller tight-heads on the international scene at 6’3”. His height requires him to make some individual adjustments to the position, in terms of both his right-arm bind and his packing angle.

• Cole’s left-arm bind. The positioning of both binds (left arm over his hooker and right on the opposing loosehead) is crucial for a tall tight-head. His left-arm bind is very low and vertical – either low down on his hooker’s shorts as in Ireland at 1:27, or even more exaggerated, on the point of Maro Itoje’s right shoulder at Ireland 4:55 and 32:06, and France at 33:08. The verticality of the bind allows Cole to turn in on the opposing hooker under pressure, whereas a more lateral bind would commit him to staying square. As a result, in all these examples he ends up ‘diving’ towards the centre of the scrum when the contest becomes white-hot.

• Cole’s right-arm bind. Where his left-arm bind is designed to create flexibility, Cole’s right-arm bind is much more aggressive and dominant. From the side-on angle in Wales at 3:19, it is ‘cocked’ with the right elbow high and the arm driving straight down like a piston on the loosehead’s left shoulder. From the overhead camera shots, it is clear than the bind never extends beyond the loosehead’s armpit – he is actually pulling Jack McGrath’s jersey up his body in all three Irish examples, which demonstrates the force being exerted on McGrath’s left shoulder. Therefore, Dan Cole controls the opposing loosehead’s movement by the use of his strong right arm.

• Cole’s packing angle. His universal angle when the pressure comes is inside and on to the hooker. The body positions of the two England locks (4 and 5) and the flanker on Cole’s side (typically 7 James Haskell) support this angle. The England 1, 2 and 4 drive across towards Cole, while 5 and 7 glue their shoulders together to rotate him around McGrath at Ireland 1:30 and 4:55; in France at 33:08 it is Kruis and Robshaw who ‘glue’ and kick Cole’s hips out, forcing a mistake at the back of the French scrum.

England’s collective, and Dan Cole’s individual technique is based on the same principles on their own put-in.

The general angle of attack is very similar. It is from left-to-right, with the loosehead and hooker angling out to their right and Kruis and Haskell tight to Cole’s backside. In Ireland at 22:23 and Wales at 15:37, both of 5 George Kruis’ feet are pointing out towards the far sideline as he endeavours to kick Cole’s hips out beyond his right shoulder. Once Cole’s right hip is outside his right shoulder, England have won their battle.

At 18:35 Wales try to counter this manoeuvre by crabbing to their left, which automatically forces Cole’s right hip inside his shoulder on that side. Once again England have a solution, driving up on their loose-head to rotate through 90 degrees and force the penalty out of Craig Joubert for defensive ‘walking around’.

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England’s scrum power will all be channelled through their right side, and that means it will be coming through Scott Sio, Australia’s outstanding young loose-head prop. It is fair to say that Sio is still on a learning curve despite his promising performances for the Wallabies.

A few months ago I wrote an article based around Scott Sio’s performance against the South African Scotsman W.P.Nel on Green and Gold Rugby.

One of the steepest slopes of Sio’s scrum education has been his repeated tendency to over-extend his body, as pointed out in the article. Dan Cole also found this weakness early in the World Cup game:

Against a prop like Cole, with his strong right arm and ability to drop the scrum height, this is a weakness that needs an urgent remedy.

Sio was also pinged for four penalties in the first half-hour of the Brumbies-Bulls game in Round 11 of this season’s Super rugby competition.

Sio had some problem to work out with the giant Bulls’ tight-head Marcel van der Merwe. In the clips he is pinged for first dropping the scrum at 2:08 (with van der Merwe’s right-arm bind at a very Cole-like angle), then finds himself over-extended at 7:42, with a long bind, feet well back and his chin trapped underneath his chest – a process repeated in the scrum at 27:25.

The scrum call against Sio at 9:40 appears highly suspect, but reinforces the danger of allowing early refereeing scrum perceptions to build. There is little doubt that referee Ben O’Keefe’s perception was shaped by his previous two decisions against Sio, and that tendency will be even greater with Romain Poite on the whistle at Brisbane!

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Summary: With M.Poite in charge, the importance of the scrum will be magnified in the first Test in Brisbane. Both front rows will have to be seen to be clean technically, and yet do all in their power to shape the referee’s perceptions early on in the game.

England’s scrummaging renewal after the World Cup debris, led by Dan Cole and Dylan Hartley, has been partially rather than totally convincing. They managed to achieve a stable status quo in their last three 6N matches without ever achieving dominance at the set-piece.

Dan Cole against Scott Sio will be a key litmus test in the front row. Cole will look to lever down on Sio with his right arm and attack Stephen Moore the Wallaby hooker on the inside on Aussie ball. On England feed, Cole will become the spearhead of a left-to-right movement designed to swing outside Scott Sio and force the set-piece to disintegrate, or give bullocking no.8 Billy Vunipola a free run at the first back defender.

A continuous run of penalties against either Cole or Sio will probably incur a yellow card, which may be a decisive shift in a match which is likely to be so closely contested!