Wallaby scrum guru Ledesma brings 'great vibe'

Australia's scrum coach Mario Ledesma prefers to stay out of the glare of publicity and let his disciples such as Scott Sio in the Wallaby pack do the talking for him.

Scott Sio, who started all four of Australia's Pool A matches, hailed the former Argentina scrum stalwart who has transformed what was once perceived as a Wallaby weak point into a strength at the World Cup.

They held their own against the England pack -- who leading up to the pool game had made much of the perceived fault line in the Aussie front five -- and then the Welsh.

Next up for the Wallabies is Scotland in the quarter-finals at Twickenham on Sunday.

Ledesma was brought into the Australian setup as part of the revolution after Michael Cheika became coach 12 months ago.   

"There's no huge secret with Mario," Sio said Monday.

"One of his biggest things is consistency and it's not just on game day, it's during the week, how we go about training and band together.

"Realising the importance of one to eight in the scrum has been huge for us and knowing that before we pack down in a game we look each other in the eye and know we are going to be there for each other.

"As a result we've got the most out of each other which has been great so far."

However, Sio, whose father former Samoa prop David has flown over to watch his son play, said that Ledesma is an unremitting taskmaster with the Australians as he was when a hooker for the Pumas and a coach at Clermont in France.

"As he always says of the scrum, 'You're only as good as your last one' so we've got another big test this week," said Sio.

"I'm sure he'll have some points for us to work on this week."

Sio, who says his Wallbies adventure has allowed his dad to talk about someone else's exploits other than his own for Samoa, said 42-year-old Ledesma had changed attitudes on scrummaging.   

"He’s tough at training but he’s very passionate about what he does and it really rubs off onto everyone," said Sio.

"And everyone really enjoys coming in for scrum sessions.

"In the past, people looked at scrums and thought, 'Awww, scrum sessions' but we really enjoy it now.

"He's brought a great vibe to the unit session as a whole and everyone's buying into it," said Sio.
"I think Mario's been great, he's been a pleasure to work with and the guys have a lot of respect for him and the philosophy he's trying to bring to the group."

Sio, who had to have six staples inserted into a head wound at half-time of the 33-13 hammering of England and played on regardless, said the Wallabies campaign was having an enormous impact in Australia.

"I had my old man come in on Friday and he told me the buzz back home has been great," said Sio.

"It's great that the sport is starting to grow back again to where it was in the early 2000s."

It is going to be quite a week for Sio as he celebrates his 24th birthday on Friday and on Sunday will play the country responsible for his first name.

For it was against Scotland that his father played for Manu Samoa in the 1991 quarter-finals -- after they had beaten Wales in the pool stage and pushed Australia really hard -- on October 19, three days after his birth.  

The tale goes if Samoa won I'd be called Manu, and if Scotland won it’d be Scott," said Sio junior.

"Scotland ended up winning on the day ... obviously."

Source: AFP