England eager to have ‘ruthless’ scrum that is quick to solve problems at Rugby World Cup
England scrum coach Tom Harrison during squad announcement.
England are determined to turn their scrum into a “ruthless” weapon at the Rugby World Cup and want to continue that process against Wales at Twickenham.
The crucial set-piece has been an improved area for the Red Rose in recent months as a strong Six Nations in that department got them back on an upward curve.
However, England did not enjoy a solid outing at scrum time in their first Rugby World Cup warm-up match in Cardiff and hope to launch a response this week.
Want a ruthless scrum
“We want to have a ruthless scrum. England want to scrummage,” England scrum coach Tom Harrison stated ahead of this week’s intriguing game at Twickenham.
“Joe Marler and Dan Cole are in the squad and those two players want to scrummage.
“What we’re working on is if it doesn’t go right or there is a problem, how can we solve it quickly?
“How can we be so ruthless that if a team tries to do something against us, we can solve the problem?
“Against Wales I thought there were some good bits with our scrum and some bits to improve.
“I hope you’ll see a pack that’s going to work and one that will show physicality.
“Everything we’re doing is building towards the World Cup and we want to have a good performance against Wales.”
Back-to-back defeats against Wales would lead to England falling to ninth in the world rankings – their lowest position since the table was introduced in 2003.
Owen Farrell at 10
Owen Farrell returns to skipper the team this weekend while there’s also a start for Billy Vunipola at number eight in a solid line-up named by Steve Borthwick.
After this week’s match, the English will then fly to Dublin to face Ireland before finishing their World Cup warm-up schedule with a home fixture against Fiji.
England are drawn in the same Rugby World Cup pool as Argentina, Japan, Samoa and Chile and kick off their campaign against Los Pumas on September 9.
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