There is set to be a seismic clash in the front row this Saturday, as England’s Will Stuart gets ready to outmuscle the man dubbed the ‘Tongan Thor’. There are few men in Test match rugby more powerful than Wallabies prop Taniela Tupou, who will be Stuart’s opposite man this weekend at the Allianz Stadium.
Stuart and Tupou will be propping up their respective tight-heads, and shifting with all their might on the opposite sides of the shunting scrum. The Bath prop has battled against the Wallabies before, and knows all too well the threat that Tupou and his front row partner Angus Bell bring to this weekend’s battle.
“Scrum wise, you’ve got Tupou and Bell, two really good scrummagers.” Stuart said in this morning’s England press conference. “I’ve scrummed against them before, like powerful guys. All around the team they’ve got good ball carriers. They’re an exciting team. So, yeah, it’s a tough test.”
“Yeah, he’s (Tupou’s) very destructive. He’s also, like, it fairly goes without saying, he is a very destructive ball carrier as well. So, he’s a heavy guy. Obviously, (Will) Skelton is not playing this weekend. But when those two are together, it’s a pretty formidable war. I don’t know what the kilo is kind of saying on the scales between the tight-head and lock, but it’s a tough match up. But yeah, he’s up there.”
It has certainly been a surprise to see the Wallabies not name Will Skelton in the match day squad to take on England. At 6ft 8″, the lock towers over the overwhelming majority of his opponents, and at 145kg there a few men that can front up and collide with the La Rochelle giant in a one-on-one meeting.
“I think anyone who’s played against him knows how dangerous he is, especially for me as a front lifter. In a lot in most line-outs and mauls, you’re going to be getting 150 kilo men swing his hips straight through the seam. So that’s a big kind of selling point for him. Obviously a lot of us have played against him and played with him, the Sarries (Saracens) lads, so they all respect him very highly.
“So it’s from a front five point of view that’s a big thing kind of you review. You look at his games, and obviously, you know what you’re coming up against, but they’re threats are all across their back five. But there’s not many 150 kilo men kicking about in the game.”
Stuart turned his attention back to the England pack, and he is delighted to see how the forwards continue to click into gear as their season rolls on. From their inaugural gathering ahead of the Autumn Series out in Spain, to their weekly scrum sessions in their Surrey training camp, Stuart wants to see the practic put into action as the referee calls ‘crouch, bind, set’ against the Aussies. Recalling the learning points from the All Blacks Test, Stuart said;
“I think New Zealand’s are a top, top class scrum. So there was a lot for the two weeks in Girona and then into PennyHill (England training camp). There was so much emphasis put on that. I think overall, the scrum, if you look at it as a whole, that we ended up kind of giving away key penalties towards the end of the game.
“So as a whole front row unit, there’s still loads to work on, but we’re pretty happy with kind of the progress we’ve seen from obviously playing them (New Zealand) in the summer.”
One of the newest arrivals to the England training scrum sessions is Sale Sharks young gun Asher Opoku-Fordjour. The highly rated prop was called in to the camp in place of the recently retired Joe Marler, who hung up his Test match boots last Sunday. Stuart has been impressed by the England U20s star, who bolster’s the extra asset of being able to play on both sides of the scrum.
“He’s pretty impressive. He obviously has been quite tight-head for Sale, he’s come in to camp, and come in to the loose heads. I’ve come against him a couple times. He’s a strong, strong guy. He’s carrying great as well, and he seems pretty just head down and getting stuck in.”
There has been plenty of discussion around whether the Anglo-Aussie rivalry is still ignited, after England’s run of dominance in the fixture in recent years. Dating back to the 2015 Rugby World Cup Wallabies victory, the past 12 meetings have seen just two wins for Australia, with England racking up a dominant record of 10 victories. However, Stuart believes that the rivalry is still prominent, and called up his memories of watching the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final.
“I mean, for me, my earliest memories watching rugby at 2003. So that rivalry is my first kind of example of it whilst growing up. So for me, it’s always a big game.”
