Analysis: Wallabies Scrum Battle v Lions – Part 2

Mako Vunipola

Mako Vunipola is a relatively inexperienced scrummager. He has trouble getting under the opposition tighthead and hasn’t mastered the art of ‘diving’ under the tighthead’s chest so normally ends up engaging with the back of his head in the 10 o’clock position – under the tighthead’s right shoulder. This often causes him to slip outside the tighthead which leads to him standing up, giving the referee an obvious penalty target.

The Wallabies obviously recognised Vunipola’s weakness because they used a tactic in the second test designed to emphasise the issue, no doubt to get the referees attention. Instead of engaging and driving straight, the whole Wallabies scrum angled left toward the Lions tighthead side of the scrum. This left Vunipola with nothing to get his head under as Alexander had moved away from him, so he stood up.

The tactic is also designed to direct extra force at the opposition tighthead. With Adam Jones being such a strong scrummager the extra force would help to nullify him.

Even when Vunipola managed to get a piece of Alexander his upward movement tended to roll Alexander in. You would have seen Alexander releasing his bind and waiving his right arm around in the air, no doubt trying to show the referees that Vunipola was rolling him up and in as shown below.

Whilst the Wallabies tactic is illegal, it’s a tactic that has been around for a long time. Teams push the laws at scrum time, just as they push the laws at the breakdown!

To counter this tactic Vunipola worked out (or was told) that he had to chase Alexander inwards. This meant Vunipola was angling in which the referee will often penalise – of course the Wallabies were hoping for exactly that. Craig Joubert is a very experienced referee who would have seen this tactic many times before. Once he penalised Alexander twice the Wallabies stopped using this tactic and started driving straight again.

Don’t get me wrong, Vunipola quite often angles in without any help from the opposition but in the second test it was the Wallabies who were usually offending first. If you want to get the views of others on this tactic, Dean Ryan, who coached the Scottish forwards this year, also pointed this tactic out in an article here as did Brian Moore here.

The tactic worked to achieve one penalty for the Wallabies but overall cost them more than they gained. The strange thing about the use of this tactic is that when they didn’t use it and engaged straight, Alexander scrummaged quite well against Vunipola as you’ll see in the video below. There was no need for the Wallabies to use this tactic and it cost the Wallabies two penalties that resulted in six points for the Lions.

Ben Alexander

I noticed there was a bit of discussion in the comments to part one of this article regarding Alexander’s body shape /height at setup compared to his position at engagement. I’ve shown you some examples of Alexander’s poor body shape / height at setup and it’s correct that there are some examples where his position is much better, although his position is poor in most of the scrums he packs.

I agree with those commenting that a props position at engagement is the most important thing to look at. If they can get into the correct position at engagement should it matter what their position was at setup? No, but if you see a prop who regularly gets caught in a poor position at engagement, like Alexander, you’ll find that their setup is at the root of the problem and is the easiest to address.

An example where Alexander got it right at engagement was the scum packed in the 15th minute of the second test where the Wallabies drove straight and Alexander dominated Vunipola who hinged and was penalised. As you can see in the image below Alexander’s body shape / height at setup were much better than other examples I’ve shown you. He has flexed his knees a little more which drops his hips down a little and importantly he’s kept his shoulders at the same height as his hips. I’ve marked up his position and that of Vunipola for comparison as they engage, together with a centre line for the scrum.

The image below shows the position in the same scrum on engagement – I’ve also left the lines showing the setup positions so you can see the movements from setup to engagement. As you can see Alexander has timed the hit really well – he’s moved forward which is reflected in his hip position. This naturally lowers his knees and he’s in a pretty good position on engagement.

Vunipola on the other hand has missed the hit and as a result his hips have hardly moved forward and he’s stayed high. As a result Alexander gets well past the centre line and it’s no wonder from that position that Vunipola hinged and was penalised. The fact he hinged was not Alexander’s fault – it was simply because Vunipola didn’t move forward and as a result was caught in poor position.

This example shows the key for Alexander in the scrums where he performs well. When you setup as high as he does he needs more forward movement to get into a good position on engagement than a prop who sets up lower. The only way he gets the space for that extra forward movement to get into good position is if the loosehead against him engages poorly or misses the hit. With a poor scrummager like Vunipola against him, Alexander should win the hit more often than not and as a result his position at setup is not as important.

However, when Alexander comes up against a loosehead who doesn’t miss the hit that often he has a problem as he doesn’t get the space he needs to move forward as the loosehead meets him at the centre line of the scrum. As a result his hips don’t come as far forward and his knees don’t drop down. This is when he get’s caught high and scrummages poorly.

In the video below I’ve included examples of both good and poor scrummaging from Alexander where you can see the difference in his position at engagement when he wins the hit and when he doesn’t. If he addressed his poor setup position, he would scrummage well much more consistently. Until then every time he comes up against a good loosehead he’ll get caught high and go backwards or drop his shoulders down below his hips in an attempt to get lower which leads to him collapsing.

Third Test Scrum Battle

Benn Robinson has been doing a good job to contain Adam Jones in most scrums in this test series. Jones is that good that containment is probably the best we can hope for in the third test.

On the other side of the scrum Alex Corbisiero has been brought back into the Lions starting team. He is a better scrummager than Vunipola but by no means a top scrummager. His technique is inconsistent but he is very strong and uses that strength to fight back from some poor positions. He can uses the ‘dive’ tactic to get under tightheads and when he does he gets back up quite well as you’ll see in the video below.

He has been inconsistent with his scummaging since joining the Lions tour as a replacement. The area he is most vulnerable in is the engagement – he also has a tendency to miss the hit and get caught in a poor position. In the image below from the first test his setup was quite good, particularly when compared to Alexander.

However, as the image below shows Corbisiero misses the hit and this allows Alexander to get across the centre line. Despite the fact that Alexander’s position on engagement is also very poor, as you’ll see in the video below Alexander went forward forcing Corbisiero into a worse position where he hinged and caused the scrum to collapse.

Alexander has an opportunity against Corbisiero in this match but the outcome of that battle is probably more dependant on how Corbisiero scrummages – if he misses the hit and gives Alexander space, the Wallabies scrum should go quite well.

However, if Corbisiero is on his game and even just matches Alexander on the hit, we may well see Alexander getting caught in a poor position and going backwards. If this occurs, it won’t matter how well Robinson scrummages.

Even at the risk of getting caught for engaging early I think Alexander should take the risk early in the match to try and throw Corbisiero’s timing off.

With Richard Hibbard also selected to start for the Lions their scrum will be significantly stronger than it was in the second test. I’m really looking forward to the battle up front.

I’ll cover why the flankers are so important to props and what the new trial scrum laws will mean in part three on Friday.