Six Nations: England coach Eddie Jones turns up the heat on Wales for ‘illegal’ scrums

Pre-match war of words intensifies as England coach goes on the offensive

England coach Eddie Jones with Joe Marler in training (PA)

The scrums have been collapsing all season with monotonous regularity, so it seemed only right and proper that relations between England and Wales – never wholly harmonious before a big Six Nations set-to at Twickenham – should fall apart in a flurry of accusation and counter-accusation over chicanery at the set piece. Both camps went on the warpath yesterday in search of a crucial advantage that could easily determine the outcome of tomorrow’s contest.

Just as the red-rose coach Eddie Jones, back in the public eye after almost a fortnight of self-imposed Trappism, was raising doubts over the Welsh front row and the legality of their approach to the scrum engagement, Robbie McBryde, a fellow former hooker in charge of the Wales forwards, could be heard making a point or two of his own, notably about the England loose-head prop Joe Marler – the man at the centre of a similar ruckus during last year’s World Cup.

Silence does not come naturally to Jones, even when he buttons his own lip voluntarily, and once he had started speaking on his chosen topic, he was in no hurry to stop. “I’m quite upset about the way Wales scrummage,” he said. “They scrummage illegally. Terribly illegally. They pre-engage all the time, which is against the laws of the game. They do it because they don’t want a contest… and we really want a contest.

“They get penalised once or twice at the start, but then the referees get sick of penalising them because if they keep doing it, they get criticised by all the smart guys in the commentary box. They say the ref is ruining the game, but he isn’t ruining it. The team scrummaging illegally is. We want the referee to be really hard. We have the strongest scrum, so we want the laws enforced.”

By comparison, McBryde was brief and to the point. He claimed Wales had been victims of a miscarriage of scrummaging justice during the World Cup pool match between the two countries last September (not that it stopped the visitors winning the game) and identified Marler as the perpetrator of dastardly deeds at close quarters, just as the Australians did before their own game with the tournament hosts a week later. “He definitely needs to scrummage legally, otherwise we’ll be pointing the finger,” he remarked. “He was found out against the Wallabies.”

All of which raised the temperature ahead of this neighbourly meeting of rugby minds and bodies: a match that is all but certain to decide the outcome of this fiercely competitive, ultra-claustrophobic Six Nations. Things were quite hot enough anyway, what with the return to Twickenham of the South African referee Craig Joubert after his almighty mess-up in the World Cup quarter-final between Australia and Scotland; the Welsh openly pledging to test the defensive wherewithal of the diminutive England outside-half George Ford – “So you’re allowed to target players now,” said Jones with bitter irony, referring to the row over his comments about the concussion-prone Irish playmaker Jonathan Sexton; and the home team sending for the cavalry in the form of Manu Tuilagi.

As expected, Jones has plumped for the same line-up that started the victory over Ireland almost a fortnight ago, while making major adjustments to his replacement roster. Tuilagi was the most notable of those promoted to the bench and if all goes to plan, the human bowling ball will come rolling on to the field at some point during the second half, probably at inside centre.

“Manu ran two lines in training and cut a hole in our defence,” Jones reported, “so Paul Gustard [the coach charged with erecting the red-rose barricades] wasn’t too happy. He’s got something, that lad, so I just want him to find his own way. With players like Manu, I tend to undercoach rather than overcoach: I’ll just tell him to get the ball in his hands, whether it’s off the No 9, the No 10 or the No 13. You don’t want to put too many restrictions on him. More rope and less instruction – that’s my approach.”

Jones steered clear of all references to the painful World Cup defeat six months ago. “We might be a similar team in personnel, but we’re also a different team,” he said. “We haven’t spoken about the previous game because it’s irrelevant. If we need that to motivate us ahead of this match, I’ve done a bad job through the week.”

He did, however, engage enthusiastically with talk of the steel-reinforced Welsh defence, as designed and patented by Shaun Edwards, who before Christmas was linked with a move across the Severn Bridge. “Every system has its flaws,” Jones argued. “Wales have certain players with certain habits and while they present threats to us, they also present us with opportunities.

“I’m a great admirer of Welsh rugby: for a small nation to produce a golden generation of players as they have is quite a thing. They do unbelievably well. But we’re growing as a team. The key to a champion side is that people fully understand how they want to play, they respect each other and respect their roles, and they play hard for each other.

“Champion teams don’t need a coach to tell them how hard they have to train. They do it themselves.”

How close are England to that model? The answer was succinct. “We’re racing.”