‘We didn’t realise how bad it was’: inside the England scrum with Mako Vunipola

Precisely what takes place in the scrum, especially at the pointy end of the front row, remains somewhat of a mystery. There’s a reason those with intimate knowledge of this set piece are said to dabble in the “dark arts”.

The details are not imperative for most England fans. What is important is that the English pack has been getting it wrong for some time now. In fact, the 10 other tier one Test nations had a better success rate last year than England’s score of 85% from their own feed.

“We’ve had to look at ourselves on a deeper level,” said an introspective Mako Vunipola at England’s training base in south‑west London. “We knew that the scrum wasn’t where we wanted it to be. But we didn’t realise how bad it was. There was a bit of a shock.

“As a group of front-rowers we take pride in [the scrum]. It’s tough to hear. The only thing we can do is go up. We’ve seen improvements in training and the transference to games. We know that we’re on the right path.”

Clearly England are taking this seriously. Their forwards coach, Richard Cockerill, who will be moving on to Montpellier after the Six Nations, was also put forward to speak to the press this week. The message is clear – something needs to be done.

Steve Borthwick has spoken about making incremental changes to a team he said “weren’t good at anything,” under his predecessor as head coach, Eddie Jones. In order to rectify the plethora of shortcomings, Borthwick has chosen to build from the ground up.

“Steve made it very obvious what he wanted our team to look like and what English rugby, when they’re at the best, is based on,” Vunipola said. “We obviously want an attack, defence, kicking game, all that. But it’s on the bedrock of a foundation of a set piece. We as a