Mears: 'We deserve the stick'
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:03
England hooker Lee Mears admits he and his fellow front rowers know they need a far better scrummaging performance this weekend against the Springboks after being taken apart by the Wallaby pack in last weekend 28-14 defeat.
Despite having been widely criticised heading into the fixture, Al Baxter, Stephen Moore and Benn Robinson proved themselves more than a match for their England counterparts and, when they needed to, were always able to get the upper hand on their opponents.
"They got the better of us, so we deserved the stick," admitted Mears to BBC Sport.
"It was disappointing, but South Africa will pose a different problem. We know we're going to have to step it up."
He continued: "Australia had their back to the wall,
"They had a bit of a hiding the last time out against England and the press said England might do it again - but you're very naïve if you think any international team is going to let you do that to them again.
"They had a few different players, and Michael Foley has done a very good job at sorting things out.
"We were frustrated because we didn't really get going in the scrum. We've come in for a bit of criticism and rightly so.
"It was one of the better scrums I've faced at Test level, but it was very difficult because a lot of scrums went down and the referee had to take it into his hands and he gave some free-kicks and penalties against us."
On this weekend's challenge Mears said: "The Springboks love to scrum: they take it as a pushing contest, and that's exactly what we expect,
"South Africa love their props and hookers.
"If John Smit (who has been playing at prop) comes back to hooker he's a World Cup-winning captain so it's hardly weakening them in that regard,
"They always have strength in depth at prop and hooker - they'll be fine."
What went wrong last weekend? All the chat from Sheridan and Vickery and then that - can they do the job this weekend?
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