England have finally shaken their habit of losing close games and after back-to-back wins in this year’s Six Nations, the trajectory of the Steve Borthwick project appears to be positive. And Will Stuart believes there is one key area helping England take control of matches.
While Borthwick often talks about his ambition to have a creative, attacking team that moves the ball quickly, a more prosaic part of the game has quietly become very effective.
Per Opta stats, no one in this Six Nations has a better scrum success rate than England’s 94.5 per cent, while the 27.8 per cent of scrums won via penalty is also a championship high. Controlling the set-piece is providing them a stable platform from which to build and the penalty count enables them to dominate territory.
Scotland were the latest team to feel the wrath of the English scrum during their dramatic 16-15 Calcutta Cup loss at the weekend as the England front row won numerous penalties, gave away none and didn’t lose a single scrum on their own put-in.
With the retirement of Joe Marler and the phasing out of Dan Cole – two men renowned for their scrum prowess – there was a fear that England would be manhandled in the set-piece but, instead, starting props Stuart and Ellis Genge have thrived, with Fin Baxter and Joe Heyes also holding their own off the bench.
And tighthead Stuart isn’t trying to hide the pride he feels at consistently delivering his team-mates the perfect platform, with the scrum improvement coming from a concerted effort in training.
“The scrum has been a big step forward for us,” he explains. “Over the past few years, we’d get penalties here and there but we’d also give some away. You’d maybe finish a game with four penalties to five but you’d want to get 3-0 – that’s a better stat, being clean in Test rugby.
“Scrums are such big moments, they’re really important and there’s a big onus in training. In England camp, the scrum is going to be one of the most combative places and it’s really competitive but you have to know that you’re training for everyone to get better, not trying to pop someone out the top or collapse it.
“Sometimes you’re going to get drilled in the scrum but you’ve got take your medicine rather than collapse it for the good of the team. It’s been about training clean, I think we got pay-off from that in November, being really clean, applying pressure and being more dominant on our own ball.”
And when asked whether England want a dominant scrum to be a key part of their identity, Stuart’s answer is unequivocal.
“Massively,” he says. “In a game like [Scotland] where you go into a contestable battle and then there’s a knock-on, if you get a scrum penalty you get the chance to regain possession 40 metres down the pitch, it’s huge.
“That’s especially true in a tight game like that but in all games, it’s a massive point of difference and something we really want to strive for.”
Of all the rugby positions, prop is the one that perhaps benefits most from experience and the men holding up the scrum often develop later than their team-mates.
Stuart turns 29 this July but even over the past year, his improvement – especially when packing down – has been clear. As recently as last summer, he was being milked for two scrum penalties in the second Test against New Zealand at Eden Park by ferocious All Blacks loosehead Ethan de Groot but responded to have a quietly impressive autumn.
That upwards trajectory has continued into the Six Nations where he has been one of England’s best players – unsung perhaps, which is an occupational hazard of playing his position, but consistently imposing.
It has thrust him right into the heart of the British and Irish Lions conversation for this summer’s tour to Australia and he credits the competitive environment at club side Bath for honing his skills, where the front-row union includes South African behemoth Thomas du Toit – the Springbok scrummaging machine nicknamed ‘The Tank’ who is equally comfortable at tighthead or loosehead.
“Every day I’m scrummaging against Beno [Obano] or Thomas at loosehead and they’re world class,” explains Stuart. “They’re so hard to scrummage against so I’ve had to get better while being there.
“Our tighthead group is unbelievable, we’ve got so many good lads, young lads coming through – Thomas, Archie Griffin, two other starting internationals, Billy Sela who is going to be a world beater, it’s a great group to be part of.”
Stuart made his England debut back in 2020 and now has almost 50 caps to his name. They have been a mixture of starts and appearances from the bench, as he spent much of his early international career backing up the venerable Cole.
But with Borthwick finally weaning himself off the 37-year-old’s intoxicating reliability for the good of England’s long-term health, the starting gig is now Stuart’s.
And while he’s currently thriving, he knows that things can quickly change, so wants to stay focused on quietly doing the unflashy parts of his job.
“I’ve had opportunities over the past few years and I haven’t grasped them,” admits Stuart. “I’ve been playing on and off for the last five years, off the bench for the first few years then had a few chances to start and coming away from the last World Cup I’ve just tried to keep my head down and do my job well.
“Obviously no one is really going to care if I throw 30-metre skip passes if I’m getting drilled in the scrum so I just do my job well, consistently well, and keep my head below the parapet where you can’t get shot.”
