Rugby Union: Australia's Pitiful Pack is No More Says Prop Baxter

If it seemed last year that Australia's scrum had been put together like a self-assembly kit with minimal instructions, the prop Al Baxter, who today starts his first Test match since he confronted England's Andrew Sheridan at Twickenham 12 months ago, yesterday revealed that was indeed the reality.

Australia's scrum fell apart as Sheridan announced his coming of age as a prop, but worse was to come in Cardiff when the Wallabies conceded a penalty try for collapsing. Baxter was pilloried for his display against England and summarily dropped, but the 29-year old says that the evident weakness in their game has been addressed and that their pack will no longer be a pushover.

"Eddie Jones [the Australia coach who was sacked after the Wales defeat] had a lot on his mind at the time and the scrum was the least of his worries," said Baxter. "I said to him after the England game that we had to start to focus on forward play. He agreed, but he did not survive the European tour.

"Eighty per cent of our work in training at that time was on team play and concentrated on the breakdown, but that has changed and the split is now 50-50 with the set-pieces. We have moved on from last year and our scrum was more effective in the Tri-Nations. I guess that if there was a good side to what happened last year it was that it did tell [us] that we needed to concentrate on forward play."

The Australia management now contains some former hard-nosed forwards. The head coach John Connolly and forwards coach Michael Foley spent their playing careers at hooker while Australia's set-piece expert Alex Evans, who coached Cardiff and Wales in the 1990s, was a second-row who revitalised Queensland Reds' pack for this year's Super 14.

"They are three men who place considerable emphasis on the set-pieces," said Baxter. "In fairness to Eddie, he was without a scrum and forwards coach last year through no fault of his own, but the management's attitude now is totally different. Knuckles [Connolly] and Michael Foley see the set-pieces as a means to attack and make inroads while Alex Evans works with each pack member individually. He is a guy who has turned around a lot of packs in his time and he works on mentality, body position and aggression."

When Evans took over at Cardiff in 1992, he inherited not only an underperforming side but one which was regarded as a soft touch. Within a year, they were not only champions but had probably the meanest pack in the Welsh league and his tight five became internationals. At 67, Evans has lost none of his fire. "I call him the old bugger," said Foley, the former Bath coach. "He is a very important part of our overall programme. He is doing a lot of individual skill work across all our forwards. He is the best throwing-in coach in the world and he works not only on skills but on the mentality which goes into delivering them. We have two packs in training: Alex will work with one and I take the other, bringing them together at some point.

"If anything came out of our [24-16] defeat to the Ospreys on Wednesday it was that our scrum was the most combative that it had been for a good three years. It should set the tone for the rest of the tour. Our scrum improved in the Tri-Nations, but we have to get better faster. There will be teething issues: Wales's scrum is one of the best in the world, but we have to stay calm and ask, 'is it a carry on from last year, or young guys crawling before taking their walking steps?'"

At Evans's suggestion, Baxter is playing at loose-head today, having made seven appearances from the bench this year. "I have always been able to play on both sides," said the prop. "I took a lot of stick after the England game and did not enjoy it. Some of it was ridiculous and absurd, but that is the nature of the game. My attitude was that I wanted to get back on to the field again and I only had to wait a month for the Super 14. If you fall off a horse, you have to get right back on. I am sure Wales will look to target our scrum, but we have come a long way in a year."

Foley believes Baxter was unfairly blamed for the defeat at Twickenham. "It was easier to pick him up than to watch it at the time. I felt really sorry for him because no one mentioned that our back five did not scrummage that day and as a group of eight guys they may not have been encouraged as much as they should have been to be good in that area. We were punished; it is a terrible thing for a tight forward to be questioned as a person rather than as a footballer and it got to that point last year. His confidence is growing and this weekend will be a wonderful test of how far we have come this year."

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

15 K Morgan Dragons

14 G Thomas Toulouse

13 T Shanklin Blues

12 G Henson Ospreys

11 S Williams Ospreys

10 S Jones Scarlets, capt

9 D Peel Scarlets

1 G Jenkins Blues

2 M Rees Scarlets

3 A Jones Ospreys

4 I Gough Dragons

5 I Evans Ospreys

6 J Thomas Ospreys

7 M Williams Blues

8 R Jones Ospreys

Replacements R Thomas (Blues), D Jones (Ospreys), G Thomas (Scarlets), AW Jones (Ospreys), M Phillips (Blues), J Hook (Ospreys), M Jones (Scarlets)

15 C Latham Queensland

14 C Rathbone ACT

13 L Tuqiri NSW

12 S Larkham ACT

11 C Shepherd W Force

10 M Rogers NSW

9 M Giteau W Force

1 A Baxter NSW

2 T McIsaac W Force

3 R Blake Queensland

4 N Sharpe W Force

5 D Vickerman NSW

6 R Elsom NSW

7 P Waugh NSW, capt

8 W Palu NSW

Replacements A Hore (Taranaki), J Afoa (Auckland), C Dermody (Southland), R So'oialo (Wellington), A Ellis, L MacDonald (both Canterbury), S Sivivatu (Waikato)

Referee Steve Walsh (New Zealand)