Rassie hails new maul application

Rassie Erasmus has credited World Rugby’s new maul law application for contributing to an increase in tries and ball-in-play time, reports SIMON BORCHARDT.

The Springbok coach had previously voiced his frustration with the way mauls were being officiated, arguing that teams were increasingly being prevented from building effective driving mauls from lineouts.

World Rugby subsequently introduced new law application guidelines, effective from 1 June, relating to players who end up on the wrong side of a maul.

“The maul has become increasingly difficult to referee, hard to manage, and challenging to explain to viewers and fans,” World Rugby explained at the time.

“Players who find themselves on the ‘wrong’ side of the maul, after initial dominance at set-up, often become ineffective in terms of the contest, and in the way of the ball being played away.”

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According to World Rugby, the key observables are that the contest for the ball is over, and the player gets beyond the ball and/or into a pulling/dragging position. Players are asked to recognise that when they get beyond the ball and out of the contest, they leave the maul, and referees are asked to identify, manage and/or sanction.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s third Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series at FNB Stadium, Erasmus praised the impact of the new application, noting that the All Blacks had also benefited from it.

“For New Zealand also, they’re very hard to stop. They maul really, really well and a lot of times they pretend to maul and break into a vacuum, which is very hard to defend, and then they run on to your flyhalf and kick on others.

“Well done to World Rugby. When eight guys maul here or seven guys maul here, in the past you could stop it with four by going around and dragging the maul back, and then there was no space for the backs to attack.

“But now you have to commit to the maul and now the vacuum is open.”

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Erasmus believes the change has made the maul a more effective attacking weapon even when it does not directly result in a try.

“I really think the maul itself, for all teams, is a strength now because it’s a pushing competition and an in-sync competition and flying in a V-formation competition, where it was dragging and this technical thing which the referees struggled to sort out.

“I think the amount of tries we’re seeing currently is not just from maul tries. It’s actually the vacuum it creates because two loose forwards can’t stand out and the hooker can’t stand out. They must join the maul and now there’s space for the backline again.”

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The Bok coach also rejected the suggestion that increased kicking necessarily results in less action, pointing to the ball-in-play figures from the first two Tests of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.

“The interesting thing, the ball-in-play time in the previous match [at Ellis Park], where New Zealand scored five tries and won, was 29 minutes. This weekend [in Cape Town] it was again a higher ball-in-play [time], but everybody says there’s more kicking.

“More kicking makes more ball in play.

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“Overall, I think the law at the maul is great and it’s working for all teams. Even if you’re not a team mauling well, you at least commit – it’s like a scrum, you commit to a position – eight guys to stop a maul, and now there’s more space for the backline.

“I think that’s one of the big reasons we get high scores and high amounts of tries.”

Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images