KEY POINTS:
The selection of Andy Farrell at second five-eighths for England, then his injury-related defection, might have captured all the headlines but it is the return of a veteran hooker that has piqued Australia's interest ahead of tomorrow's match.
Feisty No 2 Mark Regan has got the nod over
last week's starter George Chuter in what Australia coach John Connolly, deliberately seeking to stir the pot, said was a statement of intent.
He said he wanted referee Alain Rolland to make sure the "game was clean and fair". As opposed to what, a reporter inquired. "As opposed to the other sort," replied Connolly.
Before lynching Connolly for putting the referee under duress, the context must be exposed. Earlier he was asked whether he thought the scrum would be refereed properly and, if so, how would Australia cope?
This is a sensitive subject for Australians. When they last met England at Twickenham in 2005, Matt Dunning left the field in a neck brace after Andy Sheridan humiliated the Wallaby scrum, with England running out 26-16 winners.
That expedited the removal of Eddie Jones as coach and the arrival of the acclaimed Michael Foley to work with the forwards, with an emphasis on the scrum.
So it's hardly surprising the scrum has become the focal point. To take it a step further, you could say the scrum is perhaps England's only chance of winning this quarter-final.
When Sheridan was asked if a Twickenham repeat was needed to get into the semis, he said: "That's fair enough."
Regan, 35, was equally emphatic that the scrums would have a huge bearing on the match, even if evidence suggests that in the past year this particular set-piece is rarely, if ever, the decisive phase of the game. "We are going out to perform in the scrums. It's an area of the game that will be tested this weekend," Regan said. "I am looking forward immensely to the first scrum of the day and I am hoping there will be many of them. I do enjoy a good scrum and the Aussies know it."
Everyone knows it. Regan is one of these lippy hookers England seem to have an assembly line of. Legend has it that when Canterbury toured Britain in the mid-90s the then-Bristol rookie took great delight in goading Richard Loe.
"You're not everything you're cracked up to be," Regan would taunt him at the scrums, "I'm getting an armchair ride here."
The needling stopped only when one of his props told him that if Loe didn't punch him soon, he would.
"It's one of those games with everything to play for," said Wallaby prop Matt Dunning. "Sometimes things happen but you can't go out there with any pre-conceived ideas," he said of the prospect of some off-the-ball action at the scrum.
"In this age of rugby union, you can't afford to. If you spend time in the bin or are off, it could cost you the match."
