Life in the front row is tough for Stuart

ALL Test props have to relish the head-to-head confrontations with their opposite number, and the chance physically and psychologically to put their team on the front foot. That intrinsic drive is non-negotiable, and requires deep reserves of determination, power, technique, and endurance.

However, there is a concern that props like Will Stuart, who played fly-half, centre, and No.8 as a youngster, before switching to tighthead – a similar path to Kyle Sinckler – have been hampered by being schooled in a passive scrummaging culture.

Stuart said in a recent interview Down Under how he had experienced a torrid learning curve while he was on loan to clubs, like Nottingham, Coventry and Blackheath, during his apprenticeship in the Wasps academy.

Stuart described his own scrummaging as “horrendous”, and revealed that initially he thought the adult game was governed by the same five metre push rule introduced by the RFU in age-group rugby.

He paid the price by being shunted from pillar to post before progressing through the ranks at Wasps, and then joining Bath. Unfortunately, Stuart still has ground to make up judging by the poor England scrum display in the First Test loss to Australia.

England lost two of their five put-ins in Perth, including Stuart suffering the indignity of being rammed backwards at a rate of knots by bench loose-head Scott Sio. This became the platform for the Wallaby assault which ended in Pete Samu’s decisive third try.

So, what was it that convinced Eddie Jones that Stuart, after a low key season for rockbottom Bath, deserved to start in Brisbane when Joe Heyes has made big gains for champions Leicester in England’s problem position?