Old demons would be reawakened come scrum time, England No. 8 Ben Morgan goaded Australia before their Rugby World Cup showdown on Saturday.
Morgan wasn't out of line.
He was banking on England prolonging a long history of traumatizing Australia's pack.
For example, in 2005 Australia was reduced to uncontested scrums. In 2007, Andrew Sheridan destroyed the Wallabies scrum in the World Cup quarterfinals in Marseille. Not quite a year ago, the England pack forced 13 penalties, and carried Morgan over the line twice for tries in another victory for English muscle.
But that history was consigned to, well, history, as England was mauled up front by Australia 33-13 at Twickenham, and eliminated in the pool stage for the first time.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika accepted the English had a right to keep on believing their scrum was superior until it was disproved. That day finally arrived, credited to former Argentina scrum master Mario Ledesma, who was one of Cheika's assistants at the Waratahs, and brought into the Wallabies camp.
"We have been working hard on (scrums)," Cheika said. "Mario taught me scrums are very humbling. You can dominate one but the next one you can get your pants pulled down. You have got to be consistent."
Australia became consistent the longer the match went.
The first scrum came in the second minute, and Australia conceded a free kick for pushing too early. French referee Romain Poite eventually warned the Wallabies to time their engagement right.
At the third scrum, Australia conceded a penalty which was kicked by England to make it 3-3.
But Australia was just warming up: The fourth scrum was the launch pad for Bernard Foley's first try. The sixth scrum gave up a penalty for England, but at the seventh, England loosehead Joe Marler was penalized for not scrummaging straight, and from the resulting lineout Foley scored his second try, and Australia led 17-3 into the break.
England expected Poite to be an ally of what they thought would be their dominant scrum, but Poite was fair, and warned Marler, with a graphic show of hands, after England backpedalled five meters in the ninth scrum, to scrum straighter.
Accusations against Marler midweek by former Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer, backed up by ex-ref Jonathan Kaplan, that he was not scrummaging straight, were borne out, and Marler was quickly substituted after Poite's warning. Tighthead Dan Cole came off minutes later, then Australia replaced its starring props, Sekope Kepu and Scott Sio.
"Australia clearly improved in that area," England coach Stuart Lancaster said. "We put some substitutes on to improve (our scrum), but they didn't."
Australia remained on top so much so, that another England collapse gave away a penalty which the flawless Foley kicked over for 26-13.
Their scrum controlled the clock in the last minutes, and the weakness England hoped to exploit never eventuated.
"We were outmuscled out there," England captain Chris Robshaw said.
The demons now live in England minds.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.