The recent move to revive some of the matchday atmosphere at Twickenham was admirable, so you can imagine the organizers shouting into their hands when another slow scrum last week gave those in attendance plenty of time to settle in. wondering what to eat for dinner.
That said, we are just a few months away from one of the most exceptional scrummaging performances in South Africa’s recent history to win the Rugby World Cup semi-final against England, turning the entire match on its head is set. In the big moments, the setting can now matter more than ever, as highlighted last week by England’s Dan Cole, who at the age of 36 has taken part in more scrums than hot dinners.
“In international rugby there are fewer scrums, but they are of greater importance. That’s why teams don’t want to give an inch to that and you’ve seen in the first few weeks of the tournament that they can be a bit messy and slow at times. ,” says Cole, perhaps kindly.
“I know the reaction over the first few weeks of the Six Nations hasn’t been great, but that’s clear [the scrum] can be a huge turning point in the game. For example, look at the world champions and how they use their scrum.
“It’s tough because every scrum is ramped up. You play international rugby and therefore do not play against any mugs; everyone knows what they are doing and everyone is good. It tries to maximize that. I know there is a lot of discussion about the scrum and it is about making it as competitive as possible within the role of the game.”
With the polarization of the Springboks’ dominance and the scrum snoozefest at Twickenham in mind, it’s best to learn more about how the Rugby Football Union is preparing the front rowers of the future.
Nathan Catt is England’s scrum coach, working with both men’s and women’s age groups, and is also part of the England ‘A’ coaching staff for the match against Portugal at Mattioli Woods Welford Road. Catt is a 12-year veteran of the Gallagher Premiership with Bath, having played 170 games. It is now Catt’s job to shape the props of the future.
When front-row prospects first appear in the Under-18 line-up, Catt and the coaching staff are looking for three key components. The first is the potential for size and power, which seems obvious. Then there is the mentality; the struggle to compete and dominate clashes. The final element is skill acquisition: how quickly can they learn. One notable quality missing from that list? Technical skill.
“Personally I don’t think they need to be incredibly good scrummagers in the U18s. We can teach them that over the next three years. The most important are those physical and mental characteristics,” Catt explained to Telegraph Sport. “When you get to school level you take your best ball carrier and put it at number 8. So by the time you get to U16 and U17, the best attackers are at number 8 – mobile ball carriers, the most abrasive players that influence the game the most.
“Then you realize that they may be a very good player, but they may be an average back-row who won’t make it there, but they can be a very good front-row. Potentially they won’t reach six feet and run the 100 meters in 11 seconds, but maybe they can run it in 13 seconds and weigh up to 116, 117 kilograms. They could make a very good front-row attacker – and virtually most of the elite front-row attackers are now ex-backrowers of this ilk, especially the looseheads and hookers.
Ellis Genge, the England vice-captain, is a perfect example of that progression from the back row to the front row, having made the step up at the age of 16. It means that even at national level the U18 coaches occasionally face raw front-row prospects of “learning on the job” and “starting from scratch”, as Catt puts it.
At U18 it is about “general scrum understanding and form”, before refining skills at U20 level. Few props in the latter age group are regulars in the Premier League, with Sale’s exciting Asher Opoku-Fordjour a notable exception. Once the shapes are sorted, the first few rows can focus on “tactics and problem solving.”
Won’t a monstrous French or South African platoon simply destroy carefully planned strategies? Well, yes. “Ultimately, if you have a 100kg prop against a 130kg prop, and one squats 120kg and the other squats 240kg, there will come a point where technique probably doesn’t matter as much because they’re just too much be bigger and stronger. Catt admits. “The higher you go, everyone’s technique is pretty good. It’s the smaller nuances.”
For Catt, his success stemmed entirely from perfecting his form before the engagement. He watched the band of Leicester and Argentina mainstay Marcos Ayerza and tried to emulate him. Then, after putting in a strong performance himself, Catt took clips of his best scrums and used them as a benchmark.
“If I had a bad scrummaging performance, I could get back to my best [efforts] and see if my foot was too far forward or if my elbow was too low, whatever part was wrong compared to me at my best. As you get used to your setup and process, you’ll be able to get a much better sense of whether you’ve got it slightly wrong.
“In a game a tighthead could be rolling and it could take you 60 minutes to figure out how to fix it. Even when things go terribly, you build up the repertoire to deal with that experience again.”
A current training week for the U20 consists of review and preview on Monday, with the front rows working one-on-one or three-on-three while the rest of the pack does weights and resistance exercises to build ‘one’. “leveled spine,” that perfect body shape,” as Catt puts it. On Tuesday the intensity goes up to 50 percent, and on Wednesday the pack comes together and they are engaged in live scrums – crucially eight against eight rather than simply against the scrum machine. Catt explains: “I don’t know how well the machines mimic the actual eight on eight, just because of the bindings and the foot movement. Personally, I think body-on-body is better now.”
Obviously Catt loves scrums as much as anyone, but like Cole he also sympathizes with the crowd. “I totally get it when you look at three resets, you’ve been there for five minutes and nothing has happened.”
And yet, as Cole and Catt both point out, scrums have never been more important because they “provide a real, no-contest competition” that can “clearly decide games,” as Catt puts it. Therefore, we should try to enjoy it. Make them a little faster (in a safe way), please.