England know their scrum must improve after World Cup let-down

When Ellis Genge was penalised for dropping to his knees and then getting up and not driving straight, there was a sense of inevitability as Handre Pollard landed the penalty from 49 metres in the 78th minute.

“The scrum let us down in the semi-final,” admitted Jamie George last month, the England hooker and now the side’s captain. “I mean, you’ve got to give credit to South Africa, the guys that they brought on were pretty useful. But at the same time, the guys that we were bringing off the bench were also outstanding players, so it doesn’t just go down to personnel, it’s a collective situation.

“It was a one-off game. I think generally we scrummaged pretty well during the World Cup so it’s not like a disaster or we’re in a terrible place. It is about how we become the best in the world?

“If we want to play the sort of game plan that we want to play, the England scrum needs to be dominant. And like you think about England historically and you talk about making Twickenham a fortress again – people should fear coming to scrum against England. What the semi-final highlighted to everyone was that this was something that let us down and if we fix it, this is where we can go next.”

The problem for George, Harrison and Borthwick is that time is not on their side. In the short-term, the set-piece has been a major focus of the pre-Six Nations camps, with tailored gym sessions for the front-row forwards, more live scrummaging and technical work.

But, as the concession of two scrum penalties against Italy showed in Rome last Saturday, England’s desire to engage in a scrummaging contest can be undone by opposition sides who are more keen to try to force the referee to make an early decision by messing around at the scrum set-up.

That England are still having to rely upon veteran props such as Joe Marler (33) and Dan Cole (36) – magnificent scrummagers they may be – also says much about the failure of the development pathway system for front-row forwards over the last two World Cup cycles.