Matt Mullan keen to go from zero to England hero

'If he comes out on top he’ll give himself a great shot at playing for England'

(Getty Images)

In the few weeks available to Eddie Jones to stitch together an England squad of 33 players, to be named in January, and a team to take on Scotland in the Six Nations Championship on 6 February, matches such as today’s European Cup tie between Wasps and Bath in Coventry are gilt-edged and quasi-trials.

“If he comes out on top he’ll give himself a great shot at playing for England,” said Dai Young, the Wasps director of rugby, when asked about his club’s loosehead prop Matt Mullan, but it could have applied to a handful of others, including Semesa Rokoduguni on the wing for Bath and Elliot Daly, the home team’s exciting centre three-quarter.

Mullan himself applied a dash of common sense not always associated with jamming one’s heads into a scrum to Jones’s statement that past deeds need not sway the new head coach’s England selection.

At 28, once considered the age at which a prop matures properly, Mullan has won nine caps, all from the bench, and none since the autumn Internationals against New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa and Australia 13 months ago.

Joe Marler and Mako Vunipola were England’s looseheads during the World Cup, while another prime contender, Alex Corbisiero, was omitted amid concerns over his fitness that have now recurred, with a knee problem keeping him out for the foreseeable future. “Certain players must have a bit more to their name,” Mullan reasoned, “but if you can start from zero and it’s purely based on performances, as a player that’s all you want to hear.”

There are two reasons to watch Mullan closely this afternoon: his own form – “I think I’m a much better player than I was. Particularly this year, my performances have really kicked on” – and the kerfuffle over scrums raised by Bath’s difficulties in the Premiership home loss to Northampton last Saturday.

Last month the club’s head coach, Mike Ford, said he had “two world-class front rows” at the Rec following Bath’s win over Leinster in Europe.

“It didn’t look like that last week, did it?” said Young, with the sympathetic smile of a former Wales and Lions prop who has been there, done that and ripped the T-shirt. Ford had lambasted the young referee Craig Maxwell-Keys for “not knowing what was going on at the scrums” and described the set-piece as “a lottery”.

Young did not disagree but he added: “Bath have a very strong scrum, but sometimes it goes wrong and you have to be big enough to put your hand up and say we came second best – as we did in the mauls against Exeter last weekend.”

In the latter match Mullan was grinding his teeth at the lack of scrums as Exeter kept the ball in hand or set up mauls.

The Wasps pack is nearer full strength today as they face a Bath side for whom No 8 David Denton gets his first start since joining from Edinburgh. Wasps will aim to reprise eye-catching wins over Leinster and Toulon in this European pool of illuminati, and the referee is Jérôme Garcès from France, who has just about the best reputation for letting the scrum develop consistently.

“Garcès doesn’t tend to hold the scrum for long before he allows the ball to go in,” said Young. “So it will be a real battle early doors today, with each team trying to get a perception in his mind that they’re on top.”

Most players and coaches speak enthusiastically about rewarding a dominant scrum, but they also work ferociously on tricks to save them if they are on the back foot. No one wants scrums to be unsafe but nothing is more frustrating than seeing front rows folding in as the referee finishes the engagement sequence.

Mullan, who credits Young for his improvement, says the old-style “hit” on the engagement was “like being hit by a bus – you just had to take it for as long as you could”.

Now it is more of a “pushing, wrestling match… more technical”, although – with the full force of a heavy opposition pack such as Bath’s bearing down – the “hit by a bus” analogy is still the one he goes for.

“I used to play hooker and when it collapses, and you have both arms up, you get a face full of dirt. I don’t really know how to describe the feeling in the scrum. But it would be good for everyone to try it once.”

Hmm, maybe. In any case, Young’s priority is for Wasps to get one up before the return fixture at the Rec next Saturday, and for his co-captain Mullan to show his best. “Matt was there or thereabouts [for England] last season,” said Young. “He’s in our top three tacklers every game, and the same for the number of rucks he hits. He’s developed his carrying and he’s a really strong scrummager.

“Last weekend he was a bit disappointed because it didn’t give him the opportunity to have a real go at Tomas Francis [the Exeter and Wales tighthead].” Marler’s scrummaging technique came in for scrutiny during the World Cup, while Vunipola’s dynamic carrying is his calling card. Let battle commence.