Ben Morgan believes England can get on top of Australia’s scrum again when they face the Wallabies in a must-win World Cup match on Saturday.
But former Australia coach Bob Dwyer has challenged referee Romain Poite to clamp down on what he believes are England’s “illegal” tactics at the set-piece.
Defeat for England at Twickenham could see them become the first host nation to exit the World Cup before the knockout stage after their agonising 28-25 loss to Wales in the first of their two heavyweight ‘Pool of Death’ clashes last Saturday.
However, England have won four of their last five Tests against Australia.
That includes both of their last two meetings, each at Twickenham, where a dominant England scrum played a key role.
Their most recent clash saw England No 8 Morgan score two tries, including one off the back of a scrum, in a 26-17 victory over Australia last year.
Morgan is confident memories of that tussle have not been erased completely from Australian minds, even though the Wallaby set-piece is widely regarded as being much improved since coach Michael Cheika brought in former Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma as team scrum guru.
“Absolutely a pack can suffer from past demons at a particular ground,” said Morgan, set to start in place of the injured Billy Vunipola against Australia, at England’s training base in Bagshot.
“The forwards are such a confrontational part of the game — particularly scrum-time, it’s like an all-eight battle — and when you are on the wrong end of it … they will definitely have some doubts in their mind.
“Our set-piece in particular was good against Wales and I believe Australia will definitely be concerned after reviewing that game.”
All eyes will be on French referee Poite, who repeatedly penalised Australia at the scrum during the British and Irish Lions series-clinching win over the Wallabies.
Dwyer said Australia, who won this year’s southern hemisphere Rugby Championship, are a much more effective scrummaging unit.
“Actually, the Wallabies have been scrummaging extremely well all season. They put it over both the All Blacks and Springboks,” he told Britain’s Daily Telegraph.
“Sekope Kepu on the tighthead has been very good and young Scott Sio has been a revelation at 22 years of age,” Dwyer added.
“I expect it to be a big contest … It just depends on how well Romain Poite, a noted scrum referee, officiates it.”
– Scrummaging square –
Dwyer, who guided Australia to victory over England in the 1991 World Cup final at Twickenham, urged Poite to keep an eye out for the home side’s “illegal” scrum.
In particular, Dwyer accused England loosehead prop Joe Marler of gaining an unfair advantage by angling in at the set-piece rather than scrummaging square as rugby’s rulebook says he must.
“The English work on having a reputation for legal scrummaging while doing the opposite,” Dwyer said.
“I originally attributed it to Mako Vunipola. Then I saw Joe Marler starting and they were both doing exactly the same thing. It must be by design. Neither of them scrummage square.”
Another contentious area of any rugby match is the breakdown, where England repeatedly got on the wrong side of another French referee, Jerome Garces, against Wales.
In back-row forwards David Pocock and Michael Hooper, Australia have two of the best breakdown operators in the business.
“Pocock and Hooper are great over the ball, which definitely means we have to focus extra hard there and work harder at preventing them from being successful, trying to take away their strength,” Morgan said.
“If we can nullify their ability to get over the ball it will change the way the team has to play. They like to disrupt and slow people down.
“But if we can get quick ball, it will change the pattern as well.”