"All extremely aggressive" – England prop Will Stuart compares France pack to the Springboks
02/07/2025 11:19 AM
England prop Will Stuart is set for a tough battle tomorrow afternoon, as he prepares to pack down against a colossal French scrum. Stuart has been named to start on the tight-head of Steve Borthwick’s front row, with Ellis Genge at loose-head and Luke Cowan-Dickie starting at hooker.
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France enter the fray with a hulking forward pack, that bolsters the likes of Jean-Baptiste Gros, Peato Mauvaka and Uini Atonio across the one, two and three jerseys. The trio alone contribute 371 kilos to the French pack, with Atonio tipping the scales at an immense 145kgs. Stuart has his sights set on the incoming challenge, with Les Bleus bringing a different beast to the Test match set-piece. When asked what is different about scrummaging against France, Stuart said;
“It’s a very heavy tight-five unit. They’re all extremely aggressive. The French league is refereed slightly differently with scrums, they are allowed to be more aggressive, it is rewarded a bit more. They feed off that. It’s a cool challenge, a heavy pack.”
The Bath prop was then quizzed on how the French scrum stacks up against the formidable Springboks pack. The back-to-back world champions are widely regarded to have the best eight-man shove in the global game, with Stuart finding both similarities and differences between Rassie Erasmus and Fabien Galthie’s respective scrums.
“A little differently, but similar intent. Both aggressive scrums. I obviously don’t know the respective pack weights but must be pretty similar. They both want to go at you on opposition ball and their ball. As a prop, it’s a litmus test.”
Front running for the Six Nations title alongside fellow favourites Ireland, France enter the Allianz Stadium with the understandable backing of the impartial rugby audience. The bookies pick to secure the second round win in South West London, Stuart expressed how England need to keep red alert focus and be cleaner than clean, to be in with a chance of an underdog victory.
“Just not switching off for any moment, keeping that consistency of performance throughout for not just 50 or 40 minutes. The discipline side of it, we gave Ireland too many entries in that third quarter. So from our point of view, staying switched on and not giving easy entries, and then we’ll see where we’re at.”
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