PERHAPS THE ENDURING image of Ireland’s win over Wales two weekends ago was Tadhg Furlong signalling his team’s sheer desire to scrummage.
The Irish scrum was already dominant in the first half when Furlong highlighted just how much they were enjoying it.
Ireland’s scrum dominance over the Welsh followed something similar against Italy when they won four scrum penalties.
The Irish scrum did concede three penalties in their Six Nations opener against France, winning one back, but those two most recent outings mean they are probably feeling some confidence ahead of this weekend’s visit to take on England.
Yet if the Irish forwards needed any reminder that things can go pear-shaped in this department at Twickenham, they only had to look back at their last visit in 2022.
A second-minute red card for England lock Charlie Ewels swung the odds firmly in Ireland’s favour but they had to battle extremely hard in Twickenham, only pulling clear to win in the final 10 minutes.
Much of the struggle was down to the English scrum having a field day. England won a whopping five penalties and one free-kick as Cian Healy, Dan Sheehan, and Tadhg Furlong had a miserable afternoon at the set-piece.
Ireland’s exasperation was clear on each of the penalties but referee Mathieu Raynal had no time for their appeals.
The English front row of Ellis Genge, Jamie George, and Kyle Sinckler – who was replaced by Will Stuart just before half time – went to town.
“There was a lot of chaos on the field that day, you know?” says Ireland scrum coach John Fogarty.
“Coming onto the field, we were rattled. I guess we were trying to figure out what we needed to do to stem the flow a little bit, but it was an unbelievably frustrating day.
“But you go away and take so much from it around the space at the front, the pictures we’re showing, around not giving them momentum in the very earliest part of the scrum because they’ll move around you.
“That was the main crux of it – we creaked a fraction and then they’ll move quickly and that’s something they still have in them. They start to create some momentum and they’ll move; it was deemed that we were moving and not them.”
Fogarty stops short of declaring the English tactics that day illegal. In public at least. There’s no doubt Ireland have been sending clips to World Rugby. For their part, the English have no doubt been flagging their view of Ireland’s illegal scrummaging.
Fogarty knows as well as anyone that scrummaging involves a constant pushing of the boundaries in the bid to get momentum.
“Once they got momentum, they were trying to get the scrum finished early, not to let us back in and that destabilises us,” says Fogarty.
“I guess when you see a front row and a back five behind it, when you move left or right the alignment goes in a scrum.
“For us, our front row was detached. I think that’s them trying to be dominant, I’m not going to call them an illegal scrummaging side – there’s a rich history of scrummaging in England.
“We need to deal better with how our front rows are positioning themselves and how we need to make sure we’re not creaking.
“So they did a good job. I hope and I’m pretty certain we’re in a better place now to be able to deal with some of that stuff. We’ll see. It’s going to be a big day.”
Fogarty’s key message to the Irish players is about accuracy – both in a technical and mental sense. He believes teams can get “derailed mentally by the chaos of Twickenham,” as happened around the scrum in 2022.
The referee for this Saturday’s showdown is Nika Amashukeli of Georgia, who gave 2.7 scrum penalties per game at the World Cup last year, which was below average.
There’s no doubt Amashukeli will have a busy outing at the scrum in Twickenham, with England sure to be targeting similar success, while Ireland look to build on their positive outings against Italy and Wales.
“No scrum, no win,” said Fogarty yesterday, even while acknowledging that Ireland won in Twickenham two years ago despite their scrum woes.
“We’re still not where we want to be at scrum time but we’re delivering in a way that we’re offering something to the team.
“On our own ball, we’re at 94% launch which is top of the pile [in the Six Nations]. It sounds good but we can’t rely on a good performance against Wales or that 94% because it doesn’t mean anything really.
“We have to train in the right way this week for England, deal with power and chaos and all that stuff. We’re in an OK place, but there’s more in us and we’re in a great place to deliver it.”
