EDDIE Jones will prepare his squad for the rigours of the autumn schedule with live scrummaging sessions against Wales next week.
A young England pack more than held their own against Argentina in the summer but Jones knows there will be bigger tests ahead as they look to chase down New Zealand as the world's premier pack.
Jones believes Wales have the edge up front and wants to close the gap ahead of their Six Nations meeting at Twickenham on February 10.
Jones said: “We're going to scrum against Wales on Monday week, because we need to prepare for Argentina. It will be brilliant, exactly what we need.
“New Zealand have got the best scrum in the world and we haven't. So, how do we improve? We've got to scrum against sides that are better than us. You can't improve scrummaging against each other (inside the squad).
“Steve Borthwick, Neal Hatley and I were thinking, ‘How can we take this onto the next level?' Scrum against a better team.
“Who's got a good scrum who's close to us? We thought about Georgia but it's a bit far to go to Tbilisi for a day. So then Steve gave Warren (Gatland) a ring to see whether he was up for the idea. Warren was keen, so then we worked out we'd go halfway, to Bristol, to do it.”
Jones added: “They will do a match of scrums. About 12 large scrums and 15 lineouts. We wanted Wayne Barnes but they wanted Nigel Owens, so we've bowed to their wishes and Nigel will do it. He's one of the best referees in the world, so we're lucky.”
Jones is keen to ensure his pack are totally up to speed with the new law amendments.
“The scrums have gone from basically a penalty shoot-out to the best setpiece possession to break the line,” Jones said. “That's because of the speed and you gain a numerical advantage. You can work that, and there's no other part of the game where you can do it so effectively. At lineouts now you are generally defending or attacking against one maul.
“So, scrums have changed from where you can get control back to where you can now bust a team open, put them on the back foot by the speed of the channel.
“We want to still scrum like England. We want to be able to scrum for a penalty because we know that gives our players confidence. But we also want to be able to use the ball quickly because we know we've got good backs as well.
“It will be more of the physical stuff against Wales. There's always a risk of injuries, but we need to improve our scrummaging. You know, if I see you every day there's a certainly familiarity that grows. And that's what happens when the players scrum against each other. We need to expose them to different areas.”
Jones says New Zealand are the benchmark, adding: “They are good. South Africa are coming through again with that hooker (Malcolm Marx) who is colossal.
“Wales are good, too, and we know it's going to mean something!”
