Greg Growden reviews a forgettable fixture between England and the Australian Barbarians, but retains his share of scrum fear, in The Sydney Morning Herald.
"Australia's scrum woes were amplified last night when the Barbarians front-row was minced up by the England opposition at Gosford, enabling the tourists to enjoy a mind-numbingly boring 15-9 victory.
"The Australian Barbarians pack were penalised eight times by referee Steve Walsh, with the most crucial occurring just before full-time when a makeshift front-row of hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau playing at tight-head prop, and replacements Huia Edmonds and James Slipper were guilty of collapsing. This enabled England kicker Olly Barkley to boot the winning points in a tryless and, at times, seemingly pointless match.
"Not surprisingly, a fair proportion of the crowd of 9053 booed when full-time was sounded, giving their opinion of a dreadful encounter which thankfully was not televised, because it would have sent the game backwards by decades. As the players filed off the field, one exasperated spectator yelled at the Wallabies bench: ''Bring back Tahu.''
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