Mike Cron's secret recipe for transforming the Wallabies scrum

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The Wallabies face South Africa and Argentina before lining up for their two Tests for the Bledisloe Cup against the All Blacks in Sydney on September 21 and Wellington on September 28.

Cron has been working as an assistant to former All Blacks assistant coach Joe Schmidt and building his relationship with long-time Wallabies front rowers Allan Alaalatoa and James Slipper.

He told rugby.com.au, "I'm quietly educating them on how we all work together.

"It's a special time, we're not smashing the hell out of each other. We're learning off each other, using video feedback to get good learning growth.

"It's the best session of the week when they do that. You can just muck around while the backs are inside eating or doing weights, and we can do what we want."

Cron's work produced rewards in the two-Test series against Wales when winning scrum penalties.


"The boys, in the first two Tests, have scrummaged pretty good. They're winning good, fast ball when we want it, and won a few penalties through the opposition not staying straight.

"They're learning as they scrum well, they've got more energy around the paddock because you're losing less energy at scrum-time. So, the more efficient you are, the better you are around the paddock."

Cron expects a good scrum test from Georgia at the weekend.

"They like confrontation. They like mauling, hitting it up, and their scrummaging. They're a real challenge for whoever we pick."

The number of forwards who play in France influenced the Georgia scrum, and Australia was prepared to cope with that in their scrum and maul.

Wales exploited the maul to score three tries in their series, but Cron believes progress is being made.

"It's not a simple change. It depends on who you've got in there. You have a system and you need to coach them to be able to do that system. It's like a defensive system and the backline; it takes time for them to understand and learn it.

"The attitude is great. They are trying every bit of what they've got and now what we're going to do is give them a bit more technique and training to try and help them. You can't fault their attitude."

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