Pfitzy
George Gregan (70)
Cole was doing two things to put Sio out of position:
1) Turning in and down, denying Sio a chance to lever under his sternum and make Cole distinctly uncomfortable.
2) Fading after the hit, even pulling back slightly - this is the cause of Sio overextending.
Sio was looking to put power through Cole, but had no target to set his frame against as a result of these two things. If he tries to follow Cole in, he looks like he's boring in. Staying straight and driving is also difficult because he's looking for shoulder/neck contact to gain an advantage.
The really poor thing from the officials at this point is that its OUR feed, and Cole should clearly be penalised for his angle here. But all they see is Sio hitting the deck.
In a later scrum, Cole stays square and Sio chases up his feet a little harder, meaning is arse is over his heels. At that point the whole Pommy scrum does a little two-step, drives at an angle, like this from the RWC2015 game which @Gagger analysed - these shots are from his article:
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/scrum-analysis-how-the-wallabies-crushed-england/
Once they drive in the direction of the arrows, with Sio in retreat (arse over heels) they step back around to the right and drive through him. Again, from RWC 2015 - practically a copy of the tactic:
Like that game, we don't adapt, and explode, partly because Sio can't shift his feet quick enough to recover. That was when we got penalised and the card came out I believe (?)
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So what is the answer?
Well, I'll bet Ledesma has a few after looking at images and video like the one above. And probably better than this humble analyst.
One thing I'd start with is Sio's setup - all our young props are taught to set up their feet in parallel, with a big chest. When Cole is putting these sorts of silly buggers are going on, its time to turn to Vietnamese logic: Phuc Dat.
Sio should advance his outside (left) foot slightly, in order to give himself a better chance to recover his balance instead of overextending. It means he can't be as dominant post-hit, but it also means he's unlikely to overextend and fall on his face.
If Cole turns in and pulls back, like the above, Sio can chase with his inside foot and start reaming the prick. If Cole actually wants to take him head on, then use that outside foot to drive up and then down and unsettle Cole, before resetting and driving through.
Benn Robinson was a good exponent of changing vertical angles to mess up an opposing THP. It takes a shitload of practice to do it without falling on your face.
Sio also needs to start stretching his pecs a little more, and go for a right-angle bind up and over Cole's back, to (or past) the shoulder blade. NOT a long bind down his jersey.
This is fucking tricky - it is totally ninja - but you need to get your forearm in a position where your elbow is under the THP's, and then lock his shoulder upwards. It means Cole can't twist in and down, and you have his chest open for your assault.
The hard part about this is your arm has no leverage because his pecs will beat your trapezius every time, so you need to shoot that bind up and around onto his back as quickly as possible before he locks down.
It also hurts like hell, and if he tries to squeeze down, you need to start crushing his sternum with severe prejudice and use your larger back muscles to defeat his smaller chest muscles.
Long term, this WILL result in severe damage to your muscular system, but if you gave a shit about that, you wouldn't be a prop. You blouse.
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Next is the whole scrum setup: these days you're taught that the THP's inside shoulder leads the hooker slightly, and the hooker's inside shoulder leads the LHP slightly.
In the first couple of scrums I'd reverse that and give Sio primacy on the hit. It will not only put him in a better position to address Cole's shenanigans, but disrupt the contact of Vunipola on the other side.
Beyond that, the tight 5 of the scrum needs to think as a single being. If Cole tries his silly buggers, everyone needs to push left, allowing Kepu/Holmes to attack Hartley, and Moore to attack Cole. Sio is left at a bit of a loose end but needs to stay straight and use his power to drag the scrum left-of-centre. The aim here is:
1) Nullify Cole's move in and down. If he's caught here when the scrum starts to shift, he's now trying to take the entire tight side of our scrum head-on, with no lock behind him, and only a flanker giving peripheral support.
2) Vunipola now looks like he's boring in, and depending how quickly his locks react, they'll be pushing at a tangent, creating more chaos.
3) This results in exactly the same thing that England did to us after Cole foxed the first couple of scrums - he started to push straight, and after a quick shuffle the entire English pack sheared us off.
Again, from the @Gagger article
Note how Hooper is keeping his arse out, and is barely bound? That is because he's putting all his weight onto the loosehead in order to keep him forced up against the weight of the scrum.
Similar to what Sio is going to feel, as a LHP at that point you're not really pushing 100% - you're kind of pulling your hooker left of centre, and can't really hit the THP straight on. The left side flanker therefore has to hold you in.
If Cole wants to take us head-on, that's fine: we scrum straight, use Holmes or Kepu with Horwill behind them to drive through the bind of Hartley and Vunipola, and more than likely Vunipola will collapse in or down. If he doesn't, everyone sticks their left foot out once we're going forward, and changes direction slightly.
The last point I'd make is mainly about scrums on our ball:
FUCK hooking for the ball on our first 2-3 feeds. If you go back to the original image at the top, Moore's arse has disappeared (note the yellow stripe on the shorts is not visible) because he's going for a hook. I'd rather he set up like a third prop, and we muller the bastards on the feed.
The secret is timing. Occasionally you'll just go off a set number of seconds after the ball is feed, but when its getting a bit intelligent in the scrum, you need to vary that timing slightly to keep the opposition off-guard. Particularly if your hooker is going Third Prop.
You make a call as you're setting the scrum just like a lineout, which tells you if there is going to be a delay on the push or not. Phipps rolls the ball into channel 1, and then as per the call, everyone goes together: push-2-3-4 and then either a second shove or a hook if you haven't stepped over the ball.
Again, the effects of this are many fold:
1) If things go well, it shows the ref who rules the roost
2) It gives you clean ball without complications
3) It makes the opposition very bloody wary of any subsequent calls, and they start to brace for impact instead of pushing themselves, if you get it right.
After a couple of scrums like this, you should be able to get clean ball every time. If they come back at you, then just rinse and repeat.
The point is: our scrum hasn't suddenly gone to shit. In fact, if you look at the tactics England employed, they are nowhere near as powerful as they'd like everyone to believe.
Its up to our blokes to prove this beyond all doubt.
