Andy and Owen Farrell were not the only veterans of the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour to have played a significant role in this summer’s Test series down under. While father and son, as coach and player, helped to mastermind another 2-1 series win for the Lions against Australia, Alex Corbisiero’s role was away from the public eye.
For the Lions series, the Rugby Championship and the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Corbisiero has been operating as World Rugby’s scrum consultant, providing expert analysis to match officials and dealing with queries from teams.
When a coach says post-match that they will “seek clarification” on scrum decisions, it is usually a way of expressing disagreement with the referee without getting into trouble — Farrell did it after the Lions’ game against Queensland Reds. But it also triggers a process behind the scenes.
Corbisiero’s mastery of the scrum was evident during his 31-cap England career
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Corbisiero, 37, has been fixated with the scrum since he was 17. As a member of the London Irish academy, he was good enough to play pre-season games for the first XV but was told he could not appear in the Premiership until he learnt how to scrummage. Neal Hatley and Graham Rowntree showed him the way. He became obsessed with the detail, training it over and over, eventually reaching world-class status.
Corbisiero’s early try and his destructive scrummaging performance in Sydney laid the platform for the Lions to win the deciding Test in 2013. Leigh Halfpenny was the official man of the match but that was Corbisiero’s game; the pinnacle of a career that included 31 England caps and a Premiership title with Northampton Saints.
His obsession with detail continued into retirement, underpinning five years as a scrum coach in Major League Rugby in the United States. This analysis role with World Rugby has allowed him to chart trends in men’s Tests and contribute to a rapid improvement in the quality of scrummaging at the Women’s World Cup.
As in the men’s game, the more advanced women’s teams are built on set-piece strength. A lot of inquiries from the stronger nations at this World Cup have centred on how to demonstrate their desire to scrummage aggressively without being penalised against developing nations who are less sophisticated and may be unable to contain the pressure on engagement.
“There is disparity between the full-time pros and the amateurs,” Corbisiero says. “In those games, the set piece becomes a way to bludgeon teams. In games where the set piece is more even, you get a lot of ball-out running rugby. From the semi-finals it will get really tasty.
“From what I have seen, it is harder in the women’s game for the tight-head to lock their chest down. Some are really good at it, but a theme in the tournament is that the loose-heads seem to be more dominant. It is an area where the women’s game can grow.
“The scrum detail from round one of the World Cup to now has improved massively. Being in a full-time environment really refines that. At the beginning of the tournament the balance on the bind was a bit loose and that was leading to a lot of instability and collapses. World Rugby and the referees really tidied that up.”
The feedback through the Lions tour was different. The Times learnt from team sources while in Australia that the Lions had flagged the Wallabies’ tendency in the first Test to pre-engage (closing the gap before the referee’s command in an attempt to gain an advantage).
Australia, in turn, reported concerns about the Lions hingeing on the loose-head side, through Andrew Porter and Ellis Genge. Hingeing is the practice of the loose-head prop dropping their shoulders below their hips, often as a bail-out technique when under pressure, leading to the opposition tight-head ending up face down in the turf. It should be penalised but can be hard for a referee to judge whether the loose-head has hinged first or the tight-head has overextended.
A scrum in the first Lions Test collapses. Dealing with the feedback from both sides kept Corbisiero busy during the series
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Corbisiero cannot comment directly or discuss specific examples, and he is strictly neutral throughout his analysis. His only care is for the detail. Yes, he played for the Lions, but he was also mentored by Mike Cron, Australia’s scrum coach and himself a former World Rugby consultant.
The trend in the men’s game is for fading. There are three kinds. Fading on the bind is where one team go hard and the other pull back to try to milk a free kick. The same action on the engage can give the impression that the opposition are pushing early.
What has been evident to Corbisiero through men’s Test matches this year is that teams are fading when the ball has entered the scrum, usually those with the put-in. Both Australia and the Lions were guilty of it at times.
“That is the biggest issue in the men’s game right now,” Corbisiero says. “The loose-head, for example, moves his hips up to release the pressure and pulls the tight-head so he overextends, and then reapplies the pressure so the tight-head flops to the floor.
“Tight-heads do it too. Let’s say we are playing South Africa and they are coming to nuke us at the scrum. As the ball comes in and they are trying to push, you release and they end up on the floor. The next one they are probably going to have to hold their feet a little bit more. They will be worried about going too hard in case they are penalised.
The Red Roses and Samoa demonstrate their skills at scrum time in the Women’s World Cup
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“That’s the strategy. It is very tough to referee. It happens in a split-second. Those moves are designed to manipulate the picture. As a referee, you see the tight-head overextend, but did you see what caused that in a millisecond?
“It is happening all over the top level of the game. I do not like it. I take a lot of pride in helping to grow the referees’ knowledge and understanding of all the little games going on. We can help tidy up the game, reduce resets and promote more ball-in-play rugby.”
Corbisiero is convinced that Australia would have won the series had Taniela Tupou, the Wallabies tight-head, played all three Tests. “He used to be criticised for taking an angle or cranking the arm [pulling down the opposition loose-head’s binding arm]. Now he is staying square and really locking it down. He is hard to move,” Corbisiero says.
Tupou only appeared in the the third and final Test of the Lions series but has played a starring role in the subsequent Rugby Championship
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“Mike Cron has done something pretty incredible with him. Watch the way he handled Ox Nché. Not many tight-heads could have held out that long against South Africa when they were throwing the heat at him. He is right up there with the best tight-heads in the world at the moment.”
It is not often that scrums are talked about in such positive terms; normally there is only moaning about too many resets or frustration at the ball not being put in straight. Corbisiero would demand the scrum half rolls in the ball from outside the scrum, rather than by reaching into the tunnel. “That would make it more of a contest,” he says. Recent law changes limiting the number of scrums in the game fed the perception that World Rugby wants to do away with the set piece.
“World Rugby is not trying to get rid of the scrum,” Corbisiero says. “It wants to promote more ball-in-play. I actually think we are getting better contests because of the work we are doing.”
The game needs to change the narrative and promote this unique spectacle. No prop has ever been named world player of the year.
Corbisiero, meanwhile, has never wanted to live off that Test in 2013. He is making music (under the name C-ERO) and he is working with ASM Sports to secure university scholarships for young players.
And he will continue to spread the scrummaging gospel. In addition to his World Rugby work, Corbisiero is making his expertise available to all, via an online programme offering personalised tuition. It is the course he would have jumped at as a 17-year-old.
⬤ For more information on Corbisiero’s course, click here