Neil Barnes says that the All Blacks aren’t proud of their maul defensive efforts in the Nations Championship clash against Scotland.

New Zealand claimed a 43-21 victory over the Scots at Murrayfield in their first November Test match, but two of the hosts’ tries came from the driving maul, with hooker Ewan Ashman grabbing another to become the fifth player to score a hat-trick against the All Blacks.

All Blacks’ pack performance against Scotland

The rolling maul was a rich source of tries over the weekend’s international rugby, with the Springboks and England also reaping the rewards of the World Rugby Law Application Guideline that came into effect in June.

This wasn’t a law change of such, instead, it was a shift in how the facet of the game is officiated with players no longer able to swim around the maul and players no longer allowed to pull attacking players out of the maul.

New Zealand have struggled to adjust to the application of the laws, which was evident during the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour, not only against the Springboks but also against the South African United Rugby Championship teams and then against Scotland too. The sheer number of maul tries during the opening weekend of the November Nations Championship has led several pundits and former players to suggest that the maul is overpowered, with calls for the laws to be re-adjusted again.

All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan has suggested that teams shouldn’t be allowed to add more players to the maul once the lineout is over, with those initially involved being the maximum. However, his colleague Barnes believes that while the shift has caused some anxiety, he doesn’t think that the laws need to be changed, but rather that teams need to react.

Barnes spoke about the driving mauls at length as he reviewed the performance of New Zealand’s pack against Scotland and looked ahead to the fixture in Cardiff against Wales.

“We had a pretty good day at the office, but you’ve got to earn that. So really pleased with the progress we’re making, particularly scrum time with Jason. He’s been chipping away there and we actually got a lot of dominance in that area. Then we managed to pull off a couple of special plays against Scotland as well,” he said in review of the victory at Murrayfield and the success of the scrum.

“So they’re pretty good at defending their mauls over here, but we’d like to think if they’re going to put everyone into the mauls, there’ll be opportunities around the edges of them.”

How it is officiated

The All Blacks also scored two tries using the driving maul as a launchpad with Wallace Sititi and Asafo Aumua scoring off the back of set-moves. Asked if he had any more trick plays up his sleeve, the senior coach replied: “Absolutely, 10 or 20. How many? But look, we just assess each team on how they go about their work and if there’s an opportunity there, we’ll have a crack at it.”

Zoning in on the All Blacks’ shortcomings in defending the maul, he praised Scotland yet again but also ruled the inconsistencies of referees between the southern and northern hemispheres.

“There are some finer details that go on in your maul defence that we honestly believe we can be better at,” Barnes said.

“Good on them; they set them up well. We’ve got to learn to accommodate the fact that the referees over here let it go forever – where back home that would have been a use it call but 100% we know we’ve got to be better there and we’re not proud that we let Scotland in for those tries but good on them, they brought three backs in and exposed us in that area.”

Wales are clear underdogs heading into the encounter against the men in black and Barnes is certain that Steve Tandy’s men will target the driving maul. Dave Rennie’s assistant coach says that New Zealand need to be more disciplined to deny the Welsh opportunities to deploy the tactic.

“I’d expect them to, but everyone’s going to,” he explained.

“If you get five metres from the line, you know you’re under the pump, but we’ve got to prevent teams from getting in there. So our discipline’s got to change. So it was pretty obvious in the game that exposed us.

“We’re down two players and we’ve got a maul on our line, so we managed to defend that one, but we spent 20 minutes with 14 players down the forward. It’s not helpful.”

Do the laws need to be adjusted again?

This led to the question of whether he believes that the laws need to be adjusted again and Barnes replied: “Nah, not really. At the end of the day, it is what it is.

“We can only do what we do, so the rules are pretty clear on what’s legal and what’s not, so… It had nothing to do with the refereeing on the weekend, it was our own stuff that we need to get fixed up.”

Asked to explain what exactly the amendment has changed, Barnes explained: “You used to be able to come right up the side, you used to be able to pull players out. So now if you get past the point of the ball, you’re offside, so you’ve got to get back in behind it. We just need that refereed consistently and everyone will be on the same page.”

There has been a notable uptick in tries from the rolling maul since World Rugby’s change in June but Barnes doesn’t believe that the balance shifted too far. This after it was believed by many that the driving maul had been depowered by illegal defensive tactics.

“No, not at all. I think if you get your job right, you can prevent them,” he said.

“So obviously we’re putting some work into that this week. So you’ll be able to ask me that same question next week but no, I don’t think so.

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“Every time you bring about some change, we all have to adjust how we go about our work. So, it’s just created a little bit of anxiety for the defensive side of it that you can’t control the sides as well as we could, the edges, and so people are mauling more nowadays – tactics change, you have to adjust your defence to suit it.”

While the All Blacks struggled to contain the Scottish maul in the first half of the Test match, they were far better in the second half keeping Gregor Townsend’s men scoreless. Barnes therefore hailed the team’s ability to adjust on the fly and ultimately get the better of the Scots.

“That never changes. You’re only looking to bring a couple of things in that might adjust. The players at this level are pretty good at problem-solving on the field as well. We didn’t change too much. There was some fine-tuning that went on, but we pretty much went out and tried to get better at what we’re doing.”