Ledesma Australia’s secret scrumming weapon
LONDON: Australia’s forwards are benefiting from the uncompromising coaching of Argentinian scrum guru Mario Ledesma at the Rugby World Cup, prop Scott Sio said yesterday.
The Wallabies pack, not traditionally a strong area of their side, laid a solid platform in the four Pool A victories which sent them through to a quarter-final against Scotland on Sunday.
“There’s no huge secret with Mario,” Sio told reporters.
“One of his biggest things is consistency and it’s not just on game day, it’s during the week, how we go about training and band together.
“Realising the importance of one to eight in the scrum has been huge for us and knowing we’re going to get the most out of each other has been great so far.”
Sio knows full well that Ledesma will not be holding back in preparations for the Scotland game at Twickenham. “As he always says of the scrum, ‘You’re only as good as your last one’, so we’ve got another big test this week,” Sio said. “I’m sure he’ll have some points for us to work on this week.”
Ledesma was brought in by coach Michael Cheika to galvanise the Australian pack and two tries from ferocious rolling mauls against Fiji showed the improvement.
“He’s tough at training but he’s very passionate about what he does and it really rubs off on to everyone,” Sio said.
“In the past, people looked at scrums and thought, ‘Awww, scrum sessions’, but we really enjoy it now. He’s brought a great vibe to the unit session as a whole and everyone’s buying into it.”
The Australia players were planning to play golf or go to the cinema yesterday before moving to their new base in Teddington, south west London.
“We’re over here for a job and our greatest passion is playing the game and playing it well and making everyone back home proud,” scrumhalf Nick Phipps said.
“I think a lot of people blur the lines between having fun and playing well. For us, we could have fun anyway no matter where the camp is.
“The boys are quite good at entertaining themselves and using their down-time well.” – Reuters