In reply to Donald82:
> My take on what;s happened is that Marler was cheating v Wales and got away with it, so England's scrum dominated. This was called in the media in the week and Marler was trying not to do it, and then did and was penalised, so England's scrum didn't dominate against the
I think there is a bit more to scrummaging then whether the England loose head 'cheats, or not. By the Welsh scrums own high standards they have a weak front three at the moment. England by no means dominated them at the scrum last week however, just had a slight edge there by fair means or foul.
Wales also struggled against Fiji - as did England, making the point that neither scrummaging unit is especially hot at the moment.
Australia blew England away at the scrum in this match, in part by stepping away from Marler which inevitably makes him angle in and lead to some penalties, but also through good power and technique - some of the scrums in the second half were awesome.
> Therefore - if England hadn't got away with cheating against Wales they'd have been on to a hiding.
> Not really sure how you could disagree with that.
Because the Scrum was not the only area of superiority for England during most of last weeks game, and the disruption to the Welsh back line would have made it hard for them to score so many points as Australia. However I guess we have slightly different views of the game.
One of the best things about this World Cup has been the Scrums - so much better with the new rules, far fewer collapses, and the return of some proper hooking a la Japan. It's really exposed some players and teams who did well under the old rules but have struggled to adapt - England are prime examples there.