The piece had been instigated after I witnessed the England pack concede a scrum penalty try to South Africa in Bloemfontein as they lost the second Test of their 2018 summer tour – and with it the series – after being blasted back over their own line.
It was such a rare occurrence during three decades of watching England scrums that it stood out like a warning beacon. The England props were Kyle Sinckler and Mako Vunipola, and their South African counterparts (fresh off the bench) were Thomas du Toit, now with Bath, and Steven Kitshoff.
The article also drew on the encyclopaedic scrummaging knowledge of Phil Keith-Roach, the scrum coach of the 2003 England World Cup-winning squad. With his customary laser-like focus, Keith-Roach said he found the lack of attention paid to the England scrum’s shortcomings against the Springboks alarming.
He commented: “It has a huge physical and mental effect on the game, whether it is now or at the World Cup, and it is frequently the difference between winning and losing. That is why the scrum is not a minor issue.”
His concern was magnified because what we had witnessed was a complete contradiction of the regularly repeated claims by Eddie Jones that he would restore England’s traditional scrum dominance.
We do not have to detail here the England scrum collapse in the first half of the 2019 World Cup final which led to their comprehensive defeat by South Africa. However, we should examine with utmost scrutiny why four years later England’s same scrum shortcomings were brutally exposed again by South Africa in their 2023 World Cup semi-final loss.
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