LIONS THREATS AND HOW TO COUNTER – FRONT ROW AND SCRUM

How Will The Wallabies Deal With This Threat?

Loosehead

I think there is no doubt that Benn Robinson will start at loosehead for the Wallabies which will pit him against Jones. In matches in 2012 between the Wallabies and Wales, Jones had the better of Robinson. This was during a period where Robinson was still struggling to get back to form after his knee surgery in 2011 but if we look back to the tests in 2008 and 2010 where the pair faced off before Robinson was injured, Jones also came out on top.

Jones scrummages very low, whereas Robinson scrummages quite high. Robinson quite often loses the hit, looks like he is getting dominated but then uses his great strength and short stature to drive back against the opposition tighthead. The problem with Jones is that because he scrummages so low and is very good at keeping his opposing loosehead down it will be much harder for Robinson to drive back up and into the contest. In the past where Robinson hasn’t been able to get under Jones, his head often ends up outside Jones, effectively pushing in, which is nowhere near as effective. With Jones getting so low, Robinson sometimes drops his shoulders in an attempt to get in position to try and get under Jones and this causes his arm to angle downwards when he tries to bind, often resulting in a hand on the ground and the potential for penalties.

Robinson will have to work on setting up lower than he normally does by dropping his hips down, rather than his shoulders, so that when he engages he has a better chance to get under Jones. How this battle plays out will be the most important factor in determining the scrummaging outcome in the series. The sooner the Lions bring Cole on to replace Jones, the better for Robinson.

Hooker

I think Stephen Moore is currently the best hooker in Australia with Tatafu Polota-Nau behind him but I also believe that Robbie Deans would have started with Polota-Nau at hooker because of his perceived extra physicality over Moore around the field. However with Polota-Nau’s unfortunate injury that debate is over and I think the Wallabies are now a bit exposed in this position. Whilst Saia Faingaa is reasonable around the park and probably a better lineout thrower than Polota-Nau, I am concerned about his scrummaging. Fortunately the Lions don’t have a lot of experience at hooker so if Moore can stay fit the Wallabies probably have an advantage here and there may also be an opportunity to pressure Hibbard’s and Hartley’s lineout throws.

Tighthead

Tighthead is the position I’m most concerned about for the Wallabies – I believe James Slipper is the better scrummager of those in the squad but I expect Deans will start with Ben Alexander. Healy is a very athletic prop and can get under even a low scrummaging tighthead. When Alexander and Healy have opposed each other in scrums it’s been one-way traffic in favour of Healy. In the 2011 RWC pool match Healy dominated Alexander (except in one early scrum) and the Wallabies scrum was badly beaten which established a platform for Ireland to produce an upset victory.

How does Alexander counter Healy? The first thing he needs to do is start with his hips lower, the second is to work on maintaining a flat back – when you look at Alexander setting up his shoulders are often below his hips – he also generally starts with a rounded back (although there has been some improvement this year) and when he is hit by the opposing loosehead the curve in his back gets worse – with a curved back he can’t transfer the weight coming from behind him effectively which means he struggles to keep his side of the scrum stable.

I don’t think things improve much if Sekope Kepu is the replacement tighthead for the Wallabies. If James Slipper is the replacement tighthead there may be some improvement because Slipper has developed a better technique this year at tighthead by scrummaging quite low and he has also been able to maintain a much flatter back – whether he can achieve that against a very experienced prop like Healy, we will have to wait and see.

I won’t be surprised to see Dan Palmer called into the Wallabies side at some stage during the series to try and solve problems on the tight head side but his scrummaging form has fallen away as the Super Rugby season has progressed and Deans clearly values contributions around the park ahead of scrummaging capability.

What may provide some respite for the Wallabies tighthead is when Jenkins come off the bench at loosehead for the Lions as he is a taller man and doesn’t have the same ability to get under his opposing tighthead as Healy does. Don’t get me wrong – Jenkins is also a threat but not as much as Healy.

Summary

Overall, I expect the scrum to be a real challenge for the Wallabies and if they can contain the Lions scrum I think they’ll be happy with that result. No doubt Andrew Blades will be doing a lot of work with the Wallaby scrum in their camp leading up to the first test. Unfortunately with only three locks in the initial squad live scrummaging will not be as competitive as it should have been and this will compromise the Wallabies preparation.

In part two of this series on Thursday I’ll look at the Lions locks, their lineout and how the Wallabies can deal with threats in that area.