{"id":489689,"date":"2026-02-19T08:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T08:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489689\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T08:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T08:04:08","slug":"power-points-scrum-battle-could-be-crucial-in-england-v-ireland-clash-six-nations-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489689\/","title":{"rendered":"Power points: scrum battle could be crucial in England v Ireland clash | Six Nations 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two snapshots will be nagging away in Irish minds before Saturday\u2019s 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\u2019s power in the set scrums<\/a> last Saturday. The second dates back 14 years to another Anglo-Irish contest that epitomised the \u201cno scrum, no win\u201d ethos that remains non-negotiable at the highest level.<\/p>\n

The airborne Furlong footage has certainly caught the eye of England\u2019s front-rowers and a quick dip into the archives<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

As recently as 2022<\/a> Ireland conceded six scrum penalties against England at Twickenham, but were bailed out by Charlie Ewels\u2019s early red card. So little wonder there is a slight hint of green foreboding this time, particularly bearing in mind the pack\u2019s torrid scrummaging examination at the hands of South Africa in Dublin<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, their scrum was among the few bright spots and there is a clear desire for more of the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an area we want to go after, not because it\u2019s Ireland, but because a solid set piece is what we pride ourselves on,\u201d says Joe Heyes, England\u2019s tighthead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were disappointed with the result on Saturday, but from a scrum perspective the front row were quite happy with how we went. The\u00a0scrum is becoming increasingly\u00a0more powerful in games. You see it in World Cups. Even if you\u2019ve made a 50-metre break through the\u00a0middle I\u2019d still feel I\u2019d had a bad day if the scrum doesn\u2019t go well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s pack were able to\u00a0exert.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Italians are a real threat at the moment,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m so impressed with the two games they\u2019ve played. We\u2019ve even looked at how their back five have been initiating the initial movement; it\u2019s not been their front row. Technically, they look brilliant; it should be an exciting match-up [in Rome] in a couple of\u00a0weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite their defeat to Scotland, England\u2019s scrum was in good working order at Murrayfield. Photograph: Jamie Johnston\/Focus Images Ltd\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result; that\u2019s the definition of insanity,\u2019 says Heyes, referencing the constant need for props to adapt to changing in-game circumstances. \u201cYou\u2019ll go in with a plan and sometimes that plan doesn\u2019t work. Then it\u2019s about how you can adapt on the go. We do a lot of practice around that in training.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cget to the contest\u201d audible over the ref mic after the initial scrum engagement to help reinforce that mindset.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we don\u2019t want is 50-50s when you engage and go down and it\u2019s almost the toss of a coin for the referee,\u201d says Heyes. \u201cThe contest is when the scrum stays up and it\u2019s about who\u2019s going forwards and backwards. We don\u2019t want scrums to go down because then it brings the referee into it. We want it be nice and clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that sounds faintly ominous from an Irish perspective it would definitely suit England\u2019s 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\u00a0attendance.<\/p>\n

The only problem, says Heyes, is that the majority will be cheering on the visitors. \u201cThere\u2019ll be a good mix in terms of who they\u2019re supporting. I reckon it\u2019ll be 60-40 to Ireland. This fixture is special to my family, so from a personal point of view it\u2019s quite an exciting game.\u201d Particularly if the Ireland scrum shows any early sign of back-pedaling as the pressure\u00a0builds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two snapshots will be nagging away in Irish minds before Saturday\u2019s visit to south-west London. The first is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-489689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}