Wallaby scrum to silence critics
Australia's tight forwards are determined to silence critics who still take pot-shots at their much-maligned scrum.
Australian coach Ewen McKenzie, speaking ahead of the Round Two Rugby Championship[/Bledisloe Cup encounter with New Zealand in Auckland on Saturday, feels his team is on the right track.
"Like all parts of the game, we've made progress [with our scrum]," McKenzie told the Australian Associated Press, when asked about last week's 12-all draw in Sydney – where the Wallaby forwards held their own with the might and power of New Zealand.
"But I also know one bad at the day at the office [and] the headlines come out.
"They all get dusted off and they come out again.
"So we can't afford to have a bad day at the office."
The Aussies are also concerned that officious French referee Romaine Poite could be a more influential figure in the outcome of the trans-Tasman encounter than he should be.
Poite is the same referee who punished Australia's scrum during last year's series-deciding 16-41 third-Test loss to the British and Irish Lions in Sydney.
"You've got to build reputation over time," McKenzie said of the match official.
"You can trash it [the scrum's reputation] overnight, but it takes to build and he was on the sideline [assistant referee for the first Test], so he would have watched it naturally and been probably forming an opinion.
"There's no doubt that the French referees at scrum time will favour scrums going forward.
"That's the sort of philosophical approach in French rugby, which I understand.
"So you've got to make sure you aren't going backwards. You have got to be able to get parity at least and then you've got a platform to play with."
Source: AAP
