Rowntree riles up 'Big Ted'

England front-row Andrew Sheridan will scrum down against the Australians at Twickenham on Saturday with a jibe from his own coach ringing in his ears.

England front-row Andrew Sheridan will scrum down against the Australians at Twickenham on Saturday with a jibe from his own coach ringing in his ears.

The nineteen-stone prop, who famously demolished Australia's scrum in the World Cup quarter-final in Marseille thirteen months ago, has been told by England scrum coach Graham Rowntree to step up the aggression.

Rowntree believes England's man-mountain was not mean enough last weekend in the routine victory against the Pacific Islanders and clearly wants to rev up his most menacing scrummager for another huge effort against the Aussies.

“Sheridan wasn't intimidating enough for me last week. He wasn't dominant enough. We weren't dominant enough as a unit,” Rowntree said.

“We will have to step up. It's not about being a nasty player. They are all good players, physically strong guys.

“We want good aggressive players. We haven't been shoving teams around for the last handful of games.”

The former Leicester prop also insisted Sheridan should not take all the blame for an ordinary performance in Martin Johnson's first match as Team Manager, but the man known as 'Big Ted' was clearly stung by the criticism.

“He said that, did he? I'll have to have a word with him about that,” Sheridan said.

The Sale man also pointed out he had carried the ball seven times last week and made fifteen tackles, which by any standards is a high return for a prop.

It was a spirited defence from the softly-spoken Sharks player whose bite is usually much more menacing than his bark.

But he did concede that the England scrum would have to raise the bar against an Australia side which will be seeking revenge for that World Cup defeat in France and which still has nightmares about the World Cup Final loss to England in 2003.

“The scrum was a bit messy last week. We're looking to improve on that,” Sheridan admitted.

“We want to work better as a unit in the front row, keep it off the ground more.

“The referee was saying my angle wasn't right last week. Obviously I completely disagreed with him. We need to keep the scrum up and direct our power through it.”

On Saturday Sheridan will come nose to nose with wily old Australia prop Al Baxter as part of a much-changed unit from that defeated in the World Cup last year.

However, as a team the Wallabies will recall the way Sheridan demolished Guy Shepherdson in Marseille even if the Englishman wants to play down his finest hour.

Shepherdson has barely been seen since in international rugby circles with Sheridan holding fond memories of that day.

“I enjoyed that World Cup game but it is all in the past. This is here and now,” he said.

“We've had success in the scrum the last times we've played against them, but that doesn't mean we can have success again this time. It's not an individual thing, it's about everybody working together collectively.”

England have beaten Australia six times in their last ten outings, but the current Wallabies did show their potential by beating New Zealand 34-19 in the Tri-Nations in Sydney in July.

No-one knows the danger of the Australians better than Sheridan's prop partner, former captain Phil Vickery, who takes over on Saturday from Matt Stevens.

“There is no bigger Test match than England v Australia,” said Vickery, the only survivor from the World Cup Final of 2003.

“I grew up watching Australia and they were always the best. I'm genuinely excited.”

But will we see a meaner Sheridan against Australia?

“We'll have to see. See how I wake up in the morning,” he said.