The latest move to rekindle some of the atmosphere around the Twickenham matchday experience has been admirable, so you can imagine organizers screaming into their hands as last week’s slow blitz left attendees with just enough time to wonder what they’d have for dinner.
However, we are only a few months away from one of the most remarkable attacking performances in recent memory as South Africa won the Rugby World Cup semi-final against England and turned the entire competition around. In big moments, the set-piece becomes more important than ever, as England tight end Dan Cole, who at 36 has been involved in more scrums than hot dinners, highlighted last week.
“There are fewer scrums in international rugby but they are more important, so teams don’t want to give a leg up on that and you’ve seen in the first few weeks of the tournament they can be a bit complicated and slow at times,” says Cole, probably being tactful.
“I know the reaction to the first few weeks of the Six Nations wasn’t great but obviously [the scrum] It could be a big turning point in the game. For example, look at the world champions and how they use their offense.
“It’s difficult because every attack gets worse. You are playing international rugby and therefore will not be playing against any cups; everyone knows what they are doing and everyone is nice. He’s trying to maximize it. I know there is a lot of discussion about Scrum, and it’s about making it as competitive as possible within the role of the game.”
Bearing in mind the polarization of the Springboks’ dominance and the scrum postponement fest at Twickenham, it would be better to learn more about how the Rugby Football Union is preparing its front-rowers of the future.
Nathan Catt is England’s Pathway scrum coach, working with both men’s and women’s age groups and is also part of the England ‘A’ coaching team for the match against Portugal at Mattioli Woods Welford Road. Catt, a 12-year veteran of the Gallagher Premiership with Bath, who made 170 appearances, is now tasked with shaping the equipment of the future.
When the front-runners make their first appearance in the under-18 squad, Catt and his coaching staff look for three key ingredients. The first is size and power potential, which seems obvious enough. Then there is the mentality; The fight to compete and dominate clashes. The final element is skill acquisition; How fast can they learn? Is there any notable quality missing from this list? Technical ability.
“Personally I don’t think they need to be incredibly good attackers at U18. We can teach them this in the next three years. It’s those physical and mental attributes that are important,” Catt explains to Telegraph Sport. “When you get to school level you take your best ball carriers and put them at number 8. So, by the time you get to the U16s and U17s, all the best forwards are at number 8 – mobile ball carriers. , the most abrasive The players who influence the game the most.
“Then you realize that while they might actually be a very good player, they might be an average back-row player who might not be successful there, but they might be a really good front-row player. They won’t potentially reach 6ft 2in and won’t be able to run 100 meters in 11 seconds – but they could perhaps run in 13 seconds and weigh up to 116,117 kilograms (about 18 stone). “They can be a really good front row forward and pretty much most of the elite front row forwards are now former back rowers of that mould, especially the stragglers and hookers.”
England vice-captain Ellis Genge is a perfect example of the evolution from the back row to the front row, having made the move at the age of 16. This means that even at national level in the U18s coaches occasionally deal with some issues. “On-the-job learning” and “starting from scratch,” as Catt puts it, are the front-runners.
U18s are concerned with the “general understanding and form of scrum” before skills are developed at U20 level. With the notable exception of Sale’s exciting Asher Opoku-Fordjour, very few players in the second age group are Premiership regulars. Once the figures are sorted, the front rows can focus on “tactics and problem solving.”
Won’t a monstrous French or South African horde ruin carefully planned strategies? Well yes. “Ultimately, if you have a 100kg prop versus a 130kg prop and one squats 120kg and the other squats 240kg, there will come a point where technique probably won’t matter that much because they are so much bigger and stronger. ” Catt admits. “The higher the level goes, everyone’s technique is pretty good. These are smaller nuances.”
According to Catt, her great success was entirely due to perfecting her form before the engagement. He would watch the tape of Marcos Ayerza, the great star of Leicester and Argentina, and try to copy him. Later, after his own strong performance, Catt would take clips of his best offenses and use them as a reference.
“When I had a bad offensive performance, I could come back to my best. [efforts] and see whether my foot is too forward or my elbow is too low, whatever part is wrong with me at my best. As you get more comfortable with your setup and process, you’ll have a better feel for whether you’ve gotten it a little wrong.
“There might be tension in a game and it might take you 60 minutes to figure out how to fix it. “Even if it goes horribly, you build a repertoire of knowing how to deal with that experience again.”
A current training week for the U20s consists of review and preview on Monday; The front rows work one-on-one or three-on-three, while the rest of the group does weight and resistance exercises to form “a”. “The spirit level spine, that perfect attacking body shape,” as Catt puts it. On Tuesday the intensity rises to 50 percent, and on Wednesday the group comes together and goes for live scrimmages – crucially eight-on-eight, rather than just against the offensive machine. “I don’t know how well the machines replicate real eight-by-eight just because of the bindings and footwork,” Catt explains. Personally, I think body after body is better now.”
Frankly, Catt loves scrums as much as anyone, but like Cole, he sympathizes with the public. “Watching the three resets, I completely understand, you’ve been sitting there for five minutes and nothing has happened.”
Yet, as Cole and Catt emphasize, scrums have never been more important, providing “a real contest with no hiding” where, as Catt puts it, “the match can decide matches”. Therefore, we should try to enjoy them. Just (safely) give them a quicker tap, please.