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Mastering the dark art

The All Blacks want to become the world’s best scrummaging side by the next World Cup. GREGOR PAUL reports on one of their key goals.

Monday, 05 July 2010

Gregor Paul

IF A chef can’t make a decent omelet then doubt has to be cast on the rest of their work. Likewise, if an international pack of forwards can’t scrummage, they won’t intimidate any opponent. They won’t, in fact, be taken particularly seriously.

The Australians have struggled with this for years now. Their decline as a world force can be traced to the collapse of their scrummaging ability. They won the World Cup in 1999 with a pack that was solid at the set-piece. They were no giants in scrummaging terms but their relative mediocrity was hidden behind the brilliance of a backline that could tear any team apart.

But when the likes of George Gregan, Joe Roff and Stephen Larkham drifted slightly from the apex of their powers in 2004, the Wallaby machine blew a gasket. The frailty of the pack was exposed and their scrum was not even close to adequate – it was embarrassingly weak. England famously crushed it in 2005, again in 2006 and then really humiliated the Wallabies in the quarter-final of the 2007 World Cup.

The confidence drained out of Australian rugby as a consequence. With a laughing stock of a scrum, no one took them seriously. They couldn’t impose themselves the way they had of old and even though their backline was still one of the handier outfits, there was little they could do playing behind a retreating pack.

The statistics paint an indisputable picture. Not only did Australia win the World Cup in 1999 and make the final in 2003, they also beat the All Blacks six times in 11 clashes. Since 2004 they have beaten the All Blacks just three times in 15 attempts and were dumped out of the 2007 World Cup in the quarter-finals.

To reinforce that picture, it has to be remembered that in the same period the Wallabies were the world’s dominant side, the All Blacks had one of their least effective scrums. It was a part of the game that became neglected in New Zealand from the late 1990s. Maybe there was an element of complacency at the time – a belief that destructive scrummaging props would simply keep appearing and no one really had to work at a facet of the game that was in the genes.

It probably didn’t help that this was also a period when the emphasis in the southern hemisphere at least was placed on high tempo, expansive game-plans. The scrums and lineouts were viewed more as re-start mechanisms and the breakdown was largely uncompetitive as the rulings tended to favour the attacking side. The physical edge drifted out of the domestic game as the All Blacks pursued a highly skilled, flowing style of football that was pretty, but not brutal.

When Graham Henry was appointed coach of the All Blacks at the end of 2003, his first public statement included a promise to restore New Zealand’s scrummaging power.

That would be the foundation stone of the All Black renaissance – the means by which they would reaffirm their status as the world’s premier rugby nation. The All Blacks needed to rediscover their mongrel; re-establish their aura as old school types who could beat everyone up then dance like ballerinas.

Mike Cron was appointed as full-time scrummaging coach in 2004. His appointment was a signal of how serious Henry was in his belief that the forwards had to get the scrum right and then let everything flow from there.

Cron was recognised as the leading scrummaging brain in the world game and capable of transforming a relatively lightweight unit into something fearsome.

From being a bit of a pat-a-cake bunch throughout 2003, the All Blacks ended 2004 with some venom in their scrummaging work. The front-row of Carl Hayman, Anton Oliver and Tony Woodcock obliterated the vaunted French pack in November that year. The last 20 minutes were reduced to golden oldies rules as the various French props scarpered, feigning all sorts of ailments.

That was the beginning of a golden era for the All Blacks – a period where they were almost untouchable and all thanks to the scrum. They were without peer for the three years following that heady night in Paris. They were like a stone grinder, capable of turning all they encountered into dust.

But just as the revival was signaled against the French, the demise also came against the same opponent. More than the World Cup dream died on October 6, 2007. That was the last night the All Black scrum held everyone scared. Hayman left for Newcastle, Keith Robinson retired and Anton Oliver moved on. The snap and snarl was nowhere to be seen in 2008. It was even less conspicuous in 2009 and that flowed through the team. The confidence was shaken by the lack of grunt and the forwards lost their belief in virtually everything they did.

The lineout collapsed, the breakdown was patchy and the pack couldn’t get on the front foot.

At one stage last year, the All Blacks had won only four from eight games – 50 per cent ratios simply don’t work for them.

Which is why 2010 has been earmarked as the year the All Blacks discover their scrummaging bite. Having let standards slip in the last two years, the All Blacks have set themselves the goal of re-establishing their position as the pre-eminent scrummaging side in world rugby.

It’s where they were a year out from the last World Cup and where they want to be again this time next year.

They have to be if they want to finally win the World Cup. Everyone connected with the team is in no doubt that scrummaging defines a pack. To be handy at the breakdown is valuable. To be efficient at the lineout is important. But it is the way a pack scrums that sets the tone. It is the scrum where packs are judged – that is where the psychological battle is won; where one pack asserts itself over another.

“Scrummaging is the one area where you can be dominant – really assert yourself against the opposition,” says hooker Keven Mealamu.

“If you can gain dominance, then you put a lot of doubt in the mind. I know from being on the other end that if you are under pressure, you start to dread each scrum. It eats away at the confidence and you start to think ‘not again’.

“And from the other perspective, when you are on top, you know each scrum is a chance to smash them again. It is a goal to be the best, but we have to put the building blocks down to get there.”

The determination to find that destructive edge is obvious and stems from the presence of two key personnel. One of those is Cron – a coach whose standing has never dropped among the players. They still believe in him – still call him the ‘Doctor’ out of respect for his ability to cure any technical affliction.

What inspires the players about Cron is his refusal to become stagnant. Training drills continue to evolve under Cron, who incessantly borrows ideas from other sports and other disciplines. He’s a big fan of wrestling and has a range of training gadgets that all keep players sharp.

The other man inspiring confidence is Owen Franks. The lamenting over the failure to secure Hayman has been cut short. Excitement levels about his ability are proving hard to contain.

Franks is ridiculously strong. He’s a freak in the gym and hardly ever out of it. He and his brother Ben own their own gym and bring their sibling rivalry to their work.

The elder Franks can deadlift 260kg while Owen has managed 280kg for squats.

Those weights are phenomenal. If they fancied it, the Franks boys could pack in rugby today and have a decent shout of winning medals at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Such dedication to training has enabled Ben to tick one of the boxes he couldn’t last year. Constant injury saw his weight drop to around 112kg – a number that was too low to inspire confidence.

“I am up around the 115kg mark now,” says Franks senior. ‘Some guys struggle to keep the weight off, while I’m the opposite, I battle to keep it on. It’s a case of me having to continue to work in the gym, to lift the weights, eat well and hydrate well.”

The Franks boys must be close to being the two strongest men in world rugby. Mealamu says they are frightening in the gym. Brad Thorn, himself a beast, just laughs in amazement at how strong his team-mates are.

There’s no chance, though, that either of them would give up rugby to power lift as it would be such a tragic waste. They both have a deep love of the physical contact that comes with the game; dominating the weights room is just not the same as the all-encompassing danger presented by rugby.

“You just naturally have a way you like to play. Some guys are cool headed with silky skills but I quite like the contact and I’m naturally aggressive when it comes to certain things in the game,” says Ben. “They’re the things that have made me what I am as a rugby player and I won’t look to change that.”

The same is true of Owen, more so in fact. As a red-raw 21-year-old last year, he held his own. It was kind of freaky. Props are supposed to not be any good, or nowhere near their potential until they are in their mid 20s. Franks was a baby, yet looked every inch the seasoned pro. It was frightening for opponents who could see that in another four years, Franks was going to eat them alive and enjoy spitting them out.

It might not even be four years judging by what we have seen so far in 2010. Franks has advanced majorly. He dealt to the Bulls twice in Super 14 and good judges all look at his back at the engagement point and see a technician every bit as good as Olo Brown and Carl Hayman.

Those same judges believe Franks is already ahead of Hayman at the same age and capable of taking the All Black scrum to the top of the world game.

“The key things I learned last year were about the intensity of test matches,” says Franks. “I think it’s important to put down as many scrums as you can and dealing with that challenge mentally was probably the harder part.”

That resilience has been obvious in 2010. Franks is a young man who doesn’t blink when the ref calls engage. It’s partly because he loves it. “I guess for some people scrummaging is not the most enjoyable thing,” he says. “And there have been days when I have felt like that. But since I have played prop, I have mostly enjoyed the physical side of the contest, particularly the scrummaging.”

For Franks to have reached the point he has, it’s rich reward for straying off the usual path as a younger man. As an 18-year-old, he jumped into senior club football and took some ferocious hidings.

Far from break him, those tough days made him. While the modern system channels promising players straight into academy and age-grade programmes, Franks by-passed that and did his learning in an environment that forced him to face his demons. Neitzsche was right – what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

The aggression Franks brings is refreshing. There is depth to his passion – as if he’s still angry about the poundings he took in club football. His desire was not formed in a classroom or in the softer world of age-grade rugby. His was a real education where any hint of not being up to it would have been ruthlessly exposed.

That’s why at just 22 he can anchor a test scrum. That’s why there is ample confidence that over the next 15 months the All Blacks are going to progress their set-piece work and slowly return to being the force they once were.

It has been noted within the camp that the confidence generated from scrummaging ascendancy flows through. Back in 2005 and 2006 when the All Blacks were the premier scrummaging side in the world, they didn’t suffer anywhere near the same number of lineout malfunctions as they have in the last two years.

Back then they were tighter and more explosive at the cleanout, too. Getting the scrum right is critical if this All Black pack is to step up and find a level of cohesion, aggression and effectiveness that has not always been apparent since 2008.

“We set ourselves a very high benchmark a few years ago,” says Mealamu. “Our standards were very high and it would be good to get that back.”

Confidence is high and the goal is clear. The All Blacks have the physical strength within their personnel. The bigger question now is whether they have the mental aptitude to convert that into technical superiority.

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