Two snapshots will be nagging away in Irish minds before Saturday’s visit to south-west London. The first is the sobering sight of Tadhg Furlong and Dan Sheehan, both distinguished British & Irish Lions, being rocketed skywards by Italy’s power in the set scrums last Saturday. The second dates back 14 years to another Anglo-Irish contest that epitomised the “no scrum, no win” ethos that remains non-negotiable at the highest level.
The airborne Furlong footage has certainly caught the eye of England’s front-rowers and a quick dip into the archives will also remind both teams of what can happen when things up front go pear-shaped. In 2012, Ireland were left badly exposed when Mike Ross injured his neck at the first scrum and ended up conceding a penalty try, six scrum penalties and three scrums against the head as they subsided to a humbling 30-9 defeat.
As recently as 2022 Ireland conceded six scrum penalties against England at Twickenham, but were bailed out by Charlie Ewels’s early red card. So little wonder there is a slight hint of green foreboding this time, particularly bearing in mind the pack’s torrid scrummaging examination at the hands of South Africa in Dublin in November.
England are not yet as formidable a scrummaging unit as the Boks, but are steadily advancing in that area. In the chaos around them at Murrayfield, their scrum was among the few bright spots and there is a clear desire for more of the same.
“It’s an area we want to go after, not because it’s Ireland, but because a solid set piece is what we pride ourselves on,” says Joe Heyes, England’s tighthead.
“We were disappointed with the result on Saturday, but from a scrum perspective the front row were quite happy with how we went. The scrum is becoming increasingly more powerful in games. You see it in World Cups. Even if you’ve made a 50-metre break through the middle I’d still feel I’d had a bad day if the scrum doesn’t go well.”
The 26-year-old has served a lengthy apprenticeship at Leicester under Dan Cole, part of the dominant English front row in the aforementioned 2012 fixture. He remains respectful of Furlong, Sheehan, Jeremy Loughman et al but could not fail to notice the pressure Italy’s pack were able to exert.
“The Italians are a real threat at the moment,” he says. “I’m so impressed with the two games they’ve played. We’ve even looked at how their back five have been initiating the initial movement; it’s not been their front row. Technically, they look brilliant; it should be an exciting match-up [in Rome] in a couple of weeks.”
From past experience, though, Heyes and his fellow front-rowers know Ireland will be working furiously this week to shore up their scrum and show more positive pictures to the Italian referee Andrea Piardi.
“You don’t want to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result; that’s the definition of insanity,’ says Heyes, referencing the constant need for props to adapt to changing in-game circumstances. “You’ll go in with a plan and sometimes that plan doesn’t work. Then it’s about how you can adapt on the go. We do a lot of practice around that in training.”
England also want to ensure the scrums do not descend into a stop-start mess and instead offer crucial rewards to the stronger pack. There are now English cries of “get to the contest” audible over the ref mic after the initial scrum engagement to help reinforce that mindset.
“What we don’t want is 50-50s when you engage and go down and it’s almost the toss of a coin for the referee,” says Heyes. “The contest is when the scrum stays up and it’s about who’s going forwards and backwards. We don’t want scrums to go down because then it brings the referee into it. We want it be nice and clean.”
If that sounds faintly ominous from an Irish perspective it would definitely suit England’s forwards as they look to bounce back from their Scottish disappointment. To raise the emotional stakes another notch, Heyes has had this particular date circled on his calendar for months. His mother, Rachel, is Irish and at the last count 21 uncles, cousins and Irish friends will be in attendance.
The only problem, says Heyes, is that the majority will be cheering on the visitors. “There’ll be a good mix in terms of who they’re supporting. I reckon it’ll be 60-40 to Ireland. This fixture is special to my family, so from a personal point of view it’s quite an exciting game.” Particularly if the Ireland scrum shows any early sign of back-pedaling as the pressure builds.
