Prop David Wilson believes England will have to be at the top of their game in the scrum if they are to triumph against Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.
Wilson, who has won 14 of his 40 caps in the RBS 6 Nations, has started each of England’s three autumn internationals this November – even notching his first try in the 31-28 loss to South Africa.
Australia, like their hosts, have suffered a mixed bag of results this autumn – beating Wales but going down to both Ireland and France by just three points.
But with former No.8 Michael Cheika in temporary charge, Wilson is aware that the Wallabies’ forwards will do whatever necessary to gain an advantage over the Red Rose.
“Australia are very good tacticians at the scrum,” he said. “They’ll come up with anything to get the edge – I’m sure they’ll have a few tricks up their sleeves.
“They’re not a weak side at the set piece, they’re no mugs. They’ll be well-drilled. They scrummaged well in parts against Ireland and Wales and I’m sure they’ll give us a good run for our money.
“You target the set piece in every single game because you want to starve them of as much ball as possible. Australia are a good side with the ball in hand.
“We can’t take a backwards step and think it’s an easy day at the office because if we do we’ll get stuffed.
“We’ve been quite consistent at the set-piece so far and that’s what we’ll keep striving to do. You can’t win an international with 50 per cent set-piece, so we will have to be right up there.”
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