Richard Loe: The Aussies slipped up with no forward thinking

The Australians have made a real mess of their front row and only have themselves to blame. They have forgotten to develop the fundamental of all fundamentals and it has come back to bite them, deeply and painfully, on the bum.

The oldest of all rugby cliches is that, if you lose the battle up front, you lose the war. Australia have got away with it in the past because refs have allowed them to pull all sorts of scrum tricks. It's also fair to say that there has been, in recent years, more of a focus on the running game than on the basic fundamentals of forward play.

The same accusation has been levelled at New Zealand by some media know-nothings who accused the All Blacks of being "soft" with scrums that were just being used as a restart.

Well, when I was involved with scrum work for John Mitchell's All Blacks, we more than held our own up front. That was seen at the quarter-final of the 2003 World Cup when we easily outpointed the South African scrum and our backs ran them ragged.

Even in 'that' semi-final, we didn't lose to the Australians because of the scrum and, in his re-emphasis on the scrummage, Graham Henry has been able to ramp up the All Black performance because there was a strong base existing.

To be blunt, the Australians haven't had that same base. They have been more interested in luring flashy league stars than developing front-row play. A scrum technician was working with the Wallabies - former international prop Andrew Blades, who has a good reputation as a scrum coach. However, he fell out with Australian coach Eddie Jones and I believe he is heading to Perth to work alongside John Mitchell at the Force. So, well done Eddie, good man management...

The lack of Blades - and the lack of decent scrum coaching at club, provincial and international level - is a giant chook that has come home to roost. The referees are less inclined to stop sides from scrummaging and Australian deficiencies are clear to see.

However, this has been a long time coming. You have to go right back to the 80s before you find a complete Australian front row - Tommy Lawton at hooker, Topo Rodriguez (and he was an import from Argentina) and Andy McIntyre at prop. The combination of Phil Kearns, Ewen McKenzie and Tony Daly held their own but were not fearsome.

The Aussie emphasis has been elsewhere - and it showed against England. They have good second-rowers and fine loose forwards - Phil Waugh and George Smith were first to everything against England - but the tighties showed the strain at scrum time and were a month late to the breakdowns.

And, I'm sorry, Al Baxter, Bill Young and Matt Dunning are not up to it. Dunning is an impostor. He's not a hard man, he's not strong enough or technically skilled enough. Any prop who tries to drop a goal in the final minute when his side trail by five is an impostor in my book.

Baxter is supposed to be 116kg. He must be wearing his dive belt because I don't think he is that strong or that heavy. Yet only now are the Aussies talking about setting up scrum schools and coaches. To be fair to Jones, he is now saying he asked to set up scrum facilities but was denied by the ARU.

In Canterbury, I was involved with something called the Front Row Club, devised by a guy called Jack Burrows of the North Canterbury sub-union. We held clinics to educate kids in front-row play and to show parents that it could be done safely. It involved me, Chris Earl and Stu Loe and we would travel around various clubs and schools.

The whole idea was picked up by the NZRU which called it the Front Row Factory. It is still happening today and involves Mike Cron, the All Black scrum coach, and a structure which has specialists operating in the provincial unions and at club and school level. The Aussies have nothing like that.

A good front-rower must have: a big heart and a desire to achieve; work in an area that attracts little glory; put up with the pain and discomfort involved; and be real 80-minute footballers.

You need bulk and power but you must have technique. Without technique, you need a massive amount of bulk and power. To see what I mean, think of Bill Cavubati, the Wellington and Fiji prop - a man mountain but not a feared scrummager. And then look at Olo Brown, Steve McDowell and even Greg Somerville. Not big men - but big hearts and big technique.