GENGE: WE MUST CURE SCRUM WOES
ELLIS GENGE has told team-mates that England’s scrum calamity against South Africa has to be on them and not the referee.
Eddie Jones’ pack conceded five penalties and a free-kick as the Springboks obliterated their set-piece at Twickenham on Saturday.
Jones was in no doubt losing that battle made it impossible to win the war, saying: “There is one thing about rugby that has not changed – if you can’t win the scrum, you can’t win the game.”
But the England boss also said he had “grave concerns about how the scrum was refereed”, adding cryptically: “There is an adjudication issue that I’m not going to go into.”
Jones changed his entire front row at half-time, bringing on a new trio that included Genge (below), named at loosehead prop in World Rugby’s dream team of the year.
The Bristol star admitted to frustration at the way England’s game unravelled in the face of South African brute force – just as it did in the 2019 World Cup final.
“I’m not going to stand here and say ‘The ref screwed us blah blah blah’,” he said.
“We’ve got to be twice as good. We’ve got to raise the bar.
“You’ve seen it with Saracens for years in the Prem and with Leicester when we were dominant last year. You get the 50/50s because you’re so dominant.
“It’s human nature. I’m not going to argue with it, I’d probably be the same.”
While England’s scrum this year ranked worst of the top 10 nations, the world champion Springboks continue to set the standard.
“South Africa are renowned for being the best scrum, so if the scrum goes down they’re probably going to get the call,” Genge added.
“We have to work twice as hard to keep it up and do our job, and that’s not me taking anything away from them. But are the odd 50/50s going their way? Of course they are. And rightly so because they’re so good in that area.
“It’s about keeping calm, collected, being real about it.”
The Rugby Football Union have given themselves a fortnight to come to a judgement on England’s one-win-from-four autumn performance.
Warren Gatland, Wayne Smith, Scott Robertson, Ronan O’Gara and Steve Borthwick are among the candidates to take over in the unlikely event they decide Jones’ time is up.