All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan has called on World Rugby to consider a law change to the maul, an area of the game that has become increasingly undefendable in recent months.

The sport’s governing body introduced a fresh law application earlier this year regarding how the maul is refereed.
While there was no change to the core law on June 1, officials have been clamping down more on players caught on the wrong side in the contest, prohibiting pulling and dragging and requiring them to remove themselves and retreat.

The tweaks have significantly favoured attacking lineout drives and the maul was the direct source of three first-half tries in last Saturday’s 43-21 win for New Zealand against Scotland.

Peter Lakai scored from a 20th-minute maul for the All Blacks, but they conceded scores in the eighth and 38th minutes when Scotland bolstered their drive when additional players joined the mauls after the initial engagement.

“They add their backs in and next minute it’s a 12 on eight…”

Ahead of next Saturday’s latest Nations Championship match, away to Wales in Cardiff, assistant coach Ryan has shared his verdict about what is happening at the maul and suggested the one law change he would like to see happen.

Asked what the review of the win over Scotland identified, Ryan told reporters: “We talked around a little bit of our accuracy, and decision-making discipline-wise was probably front of mind, which was something we also talked about before the game.

“But we sort of put a couple of things into context around where the boys were at emotionally in that in that first 40 and there’s a little bit of release and a little bit of inaccuracy caused through, I guess, a little bit of the week [the tragic passing of Logan Cadwallader, their head of security]. So that’s honest about that.

“But then we also really put in front of the boys that when we have double yellow cards back-to-back, it puts your game under pressure, puts our D under pressure.

“Next minute you’re going defending a maul with six people. Then they add their backs in and next minute it’s a 12 on eight. So that made it a little bit tough, but we also talked a lot around our half-time messaging that we thought we got right and how we played a little bit differently in the second half and came out of the blocks with real good impact.”

Elaborating further on the maul, Ryan added: “The ongoing fix is why we’re getting to defend them so much. Like I said before, that is the accuracy and decision-making getting penalised, getting put in the corner, and when you’re defending with, as I said, six forwards makes it tough.

“It’s interesting around where it [the maul] is at the moment and even across the game around how long you’ve been given to use it now.

“It was if you give them a bit of a shunt back, a metre or so, it was play away. And next minute you got a whole lot of forwards piling in, and yeah, it is what it is. But to answer your question, the balance of when the use it call comes is quite important.

“They’ve bought in this year around the swimming in mauls. They won’t allow it, (but) I’m not sure that’s where it needs to be. I’m not sure it’s really that clear what’s required and what’s not for the boys, the when to get in, when to get out of the maul. But look, we have got to sort out our penalty count so we’re not in there.”

If he could wield a law influence, what should change with the maul? “It would be if you start with six or seven people, you stay with six or seven people.”

The All Blacks finished up their Greatest Rivalry tour a few months ago beaten 3-1 in the Test series by the Springboks and with widespread criticism surrounding their scrum. They have since defeated the Wallabies 2-0 in the Bledisloe Cup series and started the northern leg of the Nations Championship with a solid victory over Scotland and a more reliable scrum.

“We’ve worked extremely hard on that,” explained Ryan. “We’ve taken on some lessons there. I thought it was officiated extremely well. I thought Andrew Brace did a great job in officiating the pictures that were in front of him and we got some reward for staying square and going forward but still got to be better.

“He got sent a few clips during the week and he reffed what was in front of him irrelevant of the clips that were sent and that’s what refereeing is about. That’s being in the moment and making decisions and he’s clear to do that.

“Props make props,” he added. “If they’re scrummaging against the best, they’ll get better themselves. And that is what we have sort of created in the last couple of years. They are still pretty young, to be honest.

“They’re all sort of early, mid-20s and that’s exciting. (Ethan) De Groot scrummaged really well and Fletcher (Newell) and that’s the reward of the other boys setting them up during the week.

“But that’s probably a little bit of confidence that’s come through with having Scott Barrett back and him and Fabian (Holland) really turning on the revs as with our loose forwards, our whole back-five group. It all has reasoning for that.”

The stand-out fixture of Nations Championship round five is the Friday night Parisian clash featuring France and South Africa, the teams currently leading the respective north and south tables.

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“It’ll be a humdinger, to be fair,” reckoned Ryan. “France are always tough at home. They’ve got good continuity in their teams, both of them. They’ve been together for quite a while. Their coaching groups have both been together a while and they’ve had a couple of big battles before. So yeah, should be all on, I’d say.”

Regarding taking on Wales the following day, the assistant coach added: “Incredibly physical team. Tough. They’re very good defensively, trying to slow your ball down.

“Steve Tandy has done an awesome job of bringing a pretty young group together that have been together for a while and you can see how they’re trying to play and they are attacking at scrum time really well, so full respect for them.”