England turn to referees for help with ‘reckless’ scrum

England won just 85 per cent of their scrums last season and have received feedback from leading referees

England's forwards coach Richard Cockerill says the team has sought advice from referees on their “reckless” scrum.

Steve Borthwick's side looked to officials as after discovering they won just 85 per cent of their own scrums last year, which was the worst of any tier one nation.

Cockerill said feedback from leading referees, including Wayne Barnes, suggested their scrum was “ill-disciplined and a bit reckless”.

“We’ve taken lots of input from the officials because that has not been as good a relationship as we would have liked and we have worked on fixing it,” he said.

“The boys have worked hard. We have got a good pack of forwards, we have got some good personnel, and it is just keeping them honest and working them harder than we probably did previously.”

England, who are sixth in the world rankings, have won all 11 of own their scrums so far this Six Nations but not everything has been positive for the team.

They lost to Scotland in round one and, despite beating Italy in the second round, are facing criticism for their attacking play.

Wales are next in the tournament for England if the game goes ahead. The fixture have been put in doubt amid reports Wales players could threaten to strike due to ongoing contract disputes with the Wales Rugby Union.

If the game goes ahead as planned, Cockerill expects the Welsh team to come out fighting.

“I think if anything it will probably galvanise them because they have their issues,” Cockerill said.

“I don’t really understand what the politics of it is, but from my experience, any hardship with a playing group generally brings them tighter together.