Exclusive – Probyn: ‘There is too much emphasis on the Australian scrum’

Jeff Probyn has warned England that they can’t rely on Australia’s weakness in the scrum to provide a win ahead of the autumn international on Saturday.

The former England prop told talkSPORT he believes Martin Johnson’s side are capable of beating the Wallabies at Twickenham on Saturday but they have to concentrate on using the ball properly.

Speaking to H&J he said: “I think they can [get a win against Australia]. I think they showed enough last week to show they’ve moved forward.

“The summer win over the Australians was good. In all honesty though there is too much emphasis being put on the fact that England are going to stuff the Australian scrum.

“There is no doubt that England will stuff the Australian scrum but I think that Australia have advanced enough to know how to plan a game based on the fact they’re going to lose the scrum.

“They certainly showed against Wales that even if they get destroyed in the scrum they are totally capable of winning a game.”

He added: “We’ve got to make sure that when we’ve got the ball we actually use it properly and we launch the right sort of attack rather than just throwing the ball wide for the sake of trying to prove to everyone that we can play a wide game.”

Don’t forget to tune into Full Contact from 8pm on Sunday, with Jeff Probyn presenting the show alongside Mike Bovill