During his formative playing stint at Auch in France’s second tier, Tom Harrison learned the Gallic mantra which is as true now as ever before: ‘Pas de melee, pas de victoire’ – ‘No scrum, no win.’
That philosophy is particularly relevant to England’s recent fortunes. Last year, set-piece struggles were a factor in the national team’s agonising series of narrow defeats. But this year, England’s scrum was the best in the Six Nations and provided a dominant platform which allowed them to claim four wins out of five, to finish narrowly behind champions France after a promising campaign.
Rewind nine months and Steve Borthwick was lamenting trouble up front which was undermining his side. In the aftermath of back-to-back Test defeats in New Zealand, the head coach said pointedly: ‘Clearly, we need to find some more tightheads. That’s going to be a big development project for myself and Tom Harrison. The scrum was under pressure, so that’s an area we have to improve.’
From that low point, England have been transformed. They have ‘found’ a tighthead who was hiding in plain sight – Will Stuart – and he has stormed into the reckoning as a potential Test starter for the Lions. The area of weakness has become a deadly asset, as captain Maro Itoje noted before the championship finale in Cardiff when he said: ‘This (scrum) has become a massive weapon for us.’
Harrison, at just 33, has earned widespread acclaim for his revival mission behind the scenes. He has worked diligently to forge close links with England’s flourishing age-group production line and with counterparts at the Premiership clubs. All the painstaking co-ordination is paying off. He is at pains to emphasise that it remains a work in progress – but the progress to date is clear for all to see.
Speaking to Mail Sport in Northampton, Harrison sought to explain the resurgence in his area of influence and how England have coped with life after Dan Cole and Joe Marler – the twin pillars of their front row for a generation. There has been a technical tweak; scrummaging lower as it suits Ellis Genge at loosehead, but also a primary focus on creating unity of purpose, aided by some helpful pointers from a decorated water-sport expert.
England scrum coach Tom Harrison has turned their major weakness into their biggest weapon
Harrison, at just 33, has earned widespread acclaim for his revival mission behind the scenes
There has been a technical tweak but also a primary focus on creating unity of purpose
‘I spend more time now on our collective set-ups, because we have new combinations,’ said Harrison. ‘When you have – in the forwards – eight clubs contributing to one scrum, it is about thinking, “How do we get everyone on the same page”. Timing is key.
‘I spent some time during the last World Cup talking to Steve Trapmore. He is a unique individual. He won a gold medal in the eight-man cox at the Sydney Olympics, then won gold at the Paris Olympics as the rowing coach. We spent a lot of time talking about how to get timing, rhythm and cohesion, so that eight guys do the same thing at the same time.
‘We have to build cohesion in a short period of time and simplify the messages about, “This is how England scrummage”. Luke Cowan-Dickie is amazing for that. He’s got Asher (Opoku-Fordjour) and Bev (Bevan Rodd) from his club, Sale – and he’s an experienced England player, so he can work with those two and help them.
‘The connection between your tighthead and second row is important. Will Stuart has played a lot with George Martin and Ollie Chessum, who have also played a lot with Joe Heyes. Luke and Jamie (George) have played a lot with both locks. Ellis has played loads with Luke and with Jamie. So, they have built cohesion in international rugby, whereas our back line have cohesion from club rugby (five of starting seven from Northampton).’
Each coach in the England set-up needs a precious share of the training schedule. Harrison has two main slots in the build-up to each Test. He gathers his forwards into a corner of the pitch at their Surrey base – seeking shade if the sun is out – and oversees a limited number of live scrums, which become feisty without boiling over – and sometimes draw a crowd.
‘On day one of training in a Test week, we’ll do set-up work with the front row and what we expect from the opposition,’ he said. ‘Day two is more physical and will be our big hit-out. We’ll go live and it will be really competitive, with seven or eight scrums – max. Then on Thursday, with our last session, we’ll do four live scrums – max. It’s about teaching under fatigue, to prepare.
‘The flare-ups are not what they used to be, but it is very competitive. It’s the best part of the week. The backs come over to watch, which gives an extra sense of how important it is. Ollie Lawrence or Tommy Freeman will come on to the flank. We’ll take someone out and put one of them in. That means we’ve covered our sin-bin plan.’
England’s scrum surge has been exemplified by the impact of one man in particular – Stuart, the Bath tighthead, who reached his 50th cap in Cardiff last month, to cap a momentous campaign for the 28-year-old. He has gone from being a largely unheralded figure, in and out of the starting XV, into a formidable cornerstone of the pack and a Lion-in-waiting.
The meticulous co-ordination is paying off but Harrison has emphasised it is a work in progress
Harrison has two main slots in the build-up to each Test. He oversees a limited number of live scrums, which become feisty without boiling over – and sometimes draw a crowd
England’s scrum was the best in the Six Nations and provided a dominant platform which allowed them to claim four wins out of five to finish narrowly behind champions France
Harrison revealed that a meeting in the West Country late last year had a galvanising impact. ‘I sat down with him in a coffee shop in Bath and laid out how it could look for him,’ he said. ‘That was in December – after the autumn Tests. It was near his house, in a lovely place his girlfriend booked.
‘Stu is a bit of a hermit crab. I remember we were at Bath, trying to get him to come for a meeting. He was around the facility somewhere and I rang him. Ollie Lawrence said, “He won’t pick up”, but he picked up for me!
‘A lot of our chat was about understanding what he needs and how I can help him. He has attacked it so hard. We speak weekly on the phone and I speak regularly to Stevie Scott, the Bath scrum coach. We’ve tried to have consistency about how we coach him and how the S&C (strength & conditioning) teams try to get him into better physical shape.
‘He’s always been phenomenally strong, but he’s worked on his acceleration and his repeat ability, in terms of doing higher-intensity work more often. And he’s worked on being in a good, heavy shape – not just heavy.’
As well as a physical transformation, there has been a mental one for Stuart too. He has recognised the need to move out of the shadow of one of England’s all-time prop icons. ‘He’s realised there’s a huge opportunity in front of him and there’s no safety blanket of Dan Cole now,’ added Harrison. ‘We spoke about that. There was a realisation from him that, “I’m no longer the young pup – it’s time to come to the forefront”.’
He certainly did that during the Six Nations, not least with some fancy footwork in open play. One stunning sidestep in the win over Italy clearly proved so effective and enjoyable that Stuart tried to repeat it several times the following week.
‘That was unbelievable, but then we got to Cardiff and he tried to do it with every single carry,’ said Harrison. ‘We had to say, “Okay Stu, it doesn’t need to happen every single time!”. As a prop, the forefront of the job is that you have to be able to scrummage, but modern-day props have to be able to do something else too, so Stu’s footwork was celebrated.’
Given the positivity of late, it is natural to imagine that Harrison has a database of scrum highlights at the forefront of his mind, but his instinct is to hark back to set-piece lapses; when England have conceded penalties or the initiative. But when pressed, he did have a recent favourite and a detailed reason for choosing it.
During his playing stint at Auch in France’s second tier, Harrison learned the Gallic mantra which is as true now as ever before: ‘Pas de melee, pas de victoire’ – ‘No scrum, no win.’
The area of weakness has become a deadly asset after the transformation under Harrison
‘One that stands out was in the second half against France in the Six Nations,’ he said. ‘It was Joe Heyes, Jamie George and Fin Baxter. They (France) had Georges-Henri Colombe at tighthead.
‘I was perched by the side of the pitch watching it and I felt this presence behind me. Standing there were Ellis Genge, Will Stuart and Luke Cowan-Dickie, and they were so invested in the English scrum and those three lads.
‘Heyesy stayed square, Fin Baxter popped him (Colombe) up and we won the penalty. We went to a lineout and Fin ended up scoring off it. If we hadn’t won the scrum penalty, we wouldn’t have had that opportunity to score that try and win the game. But it was the way all the guys were so invested that I really liked.’
The strides made by Baxter and Heyes have symbolised England’s recent success in enhancing their current and future prospects in tandem. The former made his debut in New Zealand last July, when Genge was absent and Marler suffered a tour-ending injury. A meticulously ‘thought-out’ development plan went into emergency fast-forward mode.
Harrison said: ‘How do you find out if the kettle is hot? You touch it and you get burned. They’re learning lessons. They’re a young group. We can’t just bring players in, break them then send them back. We have to make sure they are ready to perform and have a long international career.’
He has an exciting crop of rookie props emerging from the all-conquering England Under 20 side, who won the junior World Cup last summer. The first to graduate was Asher Opoku-Fordjour, the Sale sensation who can operate on both side of the front row. His senior debut came against Japan last November and he came on grinning, in the knowledge that his first task would be to join a scrum.
‘What I loved about that was the way Maro went over to him,’ said Harrison. ‘They all knew – the seven other blokes in that scrum knew – that this was his moment; and they were going to make it his moment. Maro walked away from the scrum mark to get to him, to say, “Now we are going”.
‘He was in there with Luke Cowan-Dickie, who he plays all his club games with, so it was like he had his big brother in there to look after him. Not that he needs looking after, he’s a strong boy!’
After a journeyman career in his playing days, Harrison is hitting the heights now as a coach
The next in line for a promotion to the England squad is likely to be Afolabi Fasogbon, the massive Gloucester tighthead who came to wider prominence earlier this season when he drove Genge back in a scrum, then waved the veteran off when he was replaced moments later. It was the cheeky act of a confident character. So, did Harrison like the assertive attitude?
‘I’m a big one for walking the walk before you talk the talk,’ he said carefully. ‘He’s a competitive individual. He’s fronted-up in the Premiership but he has to keep backing it up. Afo put in some really good performances before the Six Nations, but picked up an injury. Our selections for the summer tour obviously will be influenced by the Lions. If Will Stuart goes with the Lions, we will be bringing in another tighthead prop. It could potentially be him.’
Fasogbon will be on duty for Gloucester at Saracens on Saturday, with another prime chance to impress Harrison and Borthwick. Opoku-Fordjour will lock horns with Baxter at The Stoop. Stuart will be at Sandy Park, aiming to help Bath enhance their status as Premiership leaders. On Sunday, Genge will square up to Heyes at Ashton Gate, where Harrison will be watching from the stand.
He will forensically analyse footage from all of the matches, looking for promising signs of further set-piece progress among the growing group of England props. It’s not just about them, of course, the scrum guru will also keep an eye on Cowan-Dickie, George, Theo Dan and other hookers too, in the on-going quest for a ‘top-nine’ depth chart of three Test candidates in each front-row position.
After a journeyman playing career, Harrison is hitting the heights now as a coach. ‘I love what I do,’ he said. ‘It is genuinely the best job.’ With all the additional firepower coming through, the ‘weapon’ he is building should become even more deadly in the months and years ahead.
