Are England and Australia guilty of cheating in the scrum?
That seems to be the tone of the war of words taking place betwixt Red Rose coach Eddie Jones and Australia’s coach Michael Cheika.
England will face Australia in the final Test of 2016 at Twickenham and accusations of illegal scrummage are flying back and forth at a furious pace.
Of course, the verbal repartee only serves to fuel anticipation for the match, and it could be said that even negative publicity is better than no publicity, so the game will be competitive at any rate, now perhaps more so.
To Jones, himself a former Australian coach, the game is a big deal and he has not held back in the lead up to the meeting with the Wallabies.
Without even pausing to savour the recent win by England over Argentina, Jones was on the attack, suggesting that he wanted to meet with the referee for the upcoming match, Jaco Peyper, to point out the Wallabies’ scrum transgressions.
It could be dismissed as gamesmanship pure and simple, but for the fact that Australia was penalised four times in a game against France.
Not to be entirely outdone, Chieka leveled accusations that England’s tighthead Dan Cole has scrummaged illegal not only on occasion, but for the entire course of his career.