England’s scrum has its bite back – here is how they did it

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England’s scrum was the most destructive in this year’s Six Nations - Getty Images/Adrian Dennis

Who should be considered England’s most valuable individual from the recent Six Nations Championship?

Either one of the combative Curry twins or try-scorer Tommy Freeman would be legitimate answers. Maro Itoje might get a few votes thanks to an assured campaign as captain. Tighthead prop Will Stuart is another viable candidate, which brings us closer to what would be my choice: scrum coach Tom Harrison.

The evidence is convincing. England’s scrum was statistically the most destructive in the tournament. Harrison’s men forced nine penalties on their own put-in; four more than France and Wales, who were tied for second.

The success rate of their scrum – essentially how often they won the ball back from a put-in – was also top of the charts, at 96.7 per cent according to Stats Perform. As a mark of how they used that platform, three of their tries came directly from scrums. Nobody else managed more than that.

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Coach Tom Harrison has earned plaudits for the progress of England’s scrum - Getty Images/Bob Bradford

Harrison engineered these results without a pair of veterans in Joe Marler, who retired during last year’s autumn internationals, and Dan Cole. The latter’s omission from the Six Nations squad was eye-catching, and signalled something of a clean slate.

All the while, Steve Borthwick resisted any urge to prioritise bulk. He opted for relatively light, mobile back-five combinations. George Martin played an hour against Ireland and France before succumbing to injury, while Tom and Ben Curry spent plenty of time together with Ben Earl in the back row.

For the last three fixtures, Borthwick was happy to have Ted Hill and Chandler Cunningham-South – unfamiliar to the position – as back-up locks. This was a rather punchy show of self-confidence from Borthwick. He backed himself and Harrison to prepare Cunningham-South, who had made a single senior start at lock prior to last weekend, for London Irish against Leicester Tigers in the Premiership Cup three years ago, to re-enter the engine room.

An injury to Ollie Chessum after 18 minutes in last weekend’s rout of Wales meant that Cunningham-South faced a daunting shift. He had his first scrum next to Itoje within two minutes of arriving:

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England actually nudge Wales backwards against the feed, and Tomos Williams has to move the ball away quickly:

Cunningham-South was still going in the 82nd minute. This scrum was not the steadiest, yet Jack van Poortvliet is able to launch a lively attack:

England have a scrummaging hierarchy when it comes to their locks. Martin will go behind England’s tighthead prop when he is on the pitch:

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Chessum will be behind the tighthead on the right side of the scrum if he is on the field with Itoje:

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And Itoje, who deserves immense credit for his stamina, will take over as tighthead lock when teamed up with any other second row, such as Cunningham-South.

Mind-set is as influential as technical details. The latest episode of This Rose, England’s excellent in-house documentary series, captured Itoje geeing up the forwards ahead of a trip to the Principality Stadium:

“We’ve gone from a team that wasn’t as dominant as we wanted to be around the scrum. Now we’ve become a pack that is the best scrum in the Six Nations. As Gengey [Ellis Genge] and the the front-rowers say, let’s relish that. In the scrums against Wales, let’s hammer down our advantage. Back five – Henry [Pollock], Riggsy [Ben Earl], Tom [Curry], let’s fill the front row with energy so that each and every time we can make the most of it. This has become a massive weapon for us. Let’s make sure, on Saturday, it’s an even bigger one.”

Weeks previously, in the wake of the 16-15 win over Scotland to end a run of four straight Calcutta Cup defeats, Stuart explained a slight change in attitude.

“Over the past few years, we’d get penalties here and there but we’d also give [them] away,” he said. “You’d maybe finish a game that’s four penalties to five. You’d want to get 3-0; that’s a better stat.

“You want to be clean in Test rugby. Because [scrums] are such big moments, it’s really important.”

Stuart acknowledged how scrum penalties can quickly gain or surrender 40 metres. England know all too well how much they can dissolve impetus. Scrummaging lapses at the hands of South Africa have derailed their last two World Cup campaigns.

Late scrums penalties in each of the two Tests in New Zealand last summer, and then again when the All Blacks visited Twickenham five months ago, felt costly.

Revisiting Stuart’s running tally of penalties, England ended the 2024 Six Nations with a scrum penalty scoreline of 8-3. They did not concede a single one after the 16th minute of their second match, which was very impressive.

However, the scrum penalty scoreline was 6-6 on the 2024 summer tour of Japan and New Zealand and then 8-5 during the 2024 autumn series. That improved again last weekend. From a total of 52 scrums over the Six Nations, on either put-in, England were 10-4 up on penalties. And that could have been even better, too.

Here, early in the second half against Ireland, Genge loses out to Finlay Bealham in a 50-50:

Ben O’Keeffe appears to be alerted by James Doleman, the assistant referee on the near side, and explains: “Elbow down, hinging, one. Elbow down, hinging, collapse.” Genge does lose his bind, but only because of the velocity with which Bealham shoots to the floor.

Here, on the stroke of half-time against France, Genge and Luke Cowan-Dickie manipulate Uini Atonio into a very awkward position before Antoine Dupont whips a pass away from the base:

Borthwick revealed that Kevin Sinfield was integral in urging England players to lean into the British and Irish Lions narrative and to embrace the challenge of pressing their claims to tour.

Genge and Stuart cannot have done much more to shunt themselves into Andy Farrell’s thoughts. Jamie George and Cowan-Dickie, both of them Test starters for the Lions in the past, will be in the conversation as well.

Cowan-Dickie is renowned as a particularly flinty scrummager and it seems significant that Theo Dan has not featured since George returned from a hamstring complaint after the defeat in Dublin. Dan will have a chance in the Tests against Argentina and USA this July, one senses, and will need to be robust in the tight exchanges.

Fin Baxter and Joe Heyes have enjoyed excellent campaigns as deputies. The former endured a difficult autumn, and was penalised at a delicate juncture against France:

“Loosehead, elbow,” says Nika Amashukeli. Baxter seems disappointed, but gets a little pep talk from Cowan-Dickie:

A while later, the 23-year-old is too good for Georges-Henri Colombe. He and Heyes force the penalty that brings about Baxter’s try:

Michael Cheika, Heyes’s head coach at Leicester, was at Twickenham for that game and this week backed his tighthead to become an England starter at some stage. Borthwick promoted Heyes, still just 25, ahead of Cole thanks to domestic form and has been proven right.

Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Afo Fasogbon and Billy Sela will power into the reckoning soon enough, but they do not need to be rushed. Heyes and Stuart have seen to that. Stuart, blooded by Eddie Jones in 2020, has a philosophical outlook on the way he has established himself.

“I’ve had opportunities over the past few years and I haven’t grasped them,” he conceded last month.

“I’ve been playing on and off for the last five years, off the bench for the first few years then had a few chances to start coming away from the last World Cup I’ve just tried to keep my head down and do my job well.

“Obviously no one is really going to care if I’m throwing 30-metre skip passes if I’m getting drilled in the scrum so I just do my job well, consistently well, and keep my head below the parapet where you can’t get shot.”

An enhanced elite player squad (EPS) contract is surely in the offing for Stuart, who has enjoyed learning from Thomas du Toit at Bath. In turn, Stuart will shepherd Sela into the senior ranks.

Nathan Catt, a former Bath prop, is among the most important figures at the Rugby Football Union as the pathway’s designated scrum coach. Fasogbon will return from injury for Gloucester as Premiership games start up again, which is an exciting prospect.

One subtlety to watch out for is how England vary their back-row formation from scrums. Henry Pollock was posted at the base on Saturday, with Earl and Tom Willis also occupying that role. The ballast and footballing skills of Willis, more of a traditional No 8, allows England to launch. Watch this scrum against France…

…this one against Italy…

…and this one against Wales:

All of them provide clean ball. Interestingly, the sole penalty they conceded against Wales came from a set piece at which Willis moved to blindside flanker with Pollock at No 8:

Teams can never grow complacent at the scrum, because it is such a fickle area of the game. That said, England’s results are testament to the progress of the forwards as a unit and the expertise of Harrison, the man who has been coordinating them.

It has been a Six Nations in which England have consolidated their scrummaging reputation in impressive style.

Match images from ITV and BBC

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