Coaching – Defence first. The obvious point is that now you don’t have to throw hundreds of bodies at the maul, you just have to look at the best way to pull it down. The current, illegal, model is to get a large lump to hang on to the ball carrier and then try to go off his feet, tripping those around him up and bringing the maul down. This has the benefit of looking slightly less obvious and being reasonably safe. The other possible option that seems more likely to guarantee results is someone just grabs the legs of the player at the front of the maul, bringing it all down. The risk there is that your head is right in the middle of the collapsing bodies and likely to get damaged, so I would look to use the current option more.

Attack – Given that the mauls overall effectiveness is likely to be decreased, how should it be used? The major risk comes with a very fast maul, when the slightest trip or pull down will bring it crashing down at speed with no control over the ball. Consequently the maul is likely to become much slower and much shorter. I see the ball being worked to the back quickly and moved wider, with less bodies being in the maul in the first place. If you put too many in you run the risk of being outnumbered by the defence when you release the ball. My thoughts would be to run along the same sort of “pod” lines (groups of 3 players to attack as a group at given points in the field) that are frequently used now to create quick ruck ball rather than maul. It will speed up the tempo of the game quite dramatically, suiting more mobile sides with fast back rows.

Scrum

• Introduction of an offside line 5 metres behind the hindmost foot of the scrum
• Scrum half must be in close proximity to the scrum or 5 metres away

View – This first one opens up an extra attacking opportunity with a little more space and time to work in. Where it will be hugely beneficial is down in the lower leagues where any budding fly halves will get a touch more time to make decisions and this will give the attacking team more chance to use the ball wider from scrums. The second one provides a couple of challenges. Currently you see a lot of 9s drop off the scrum a couple of metres and the 8 then flicks the ball out to them to give them a spot more time. They can’t do that now. Either close by OR 5 metres away so one of two things will happen. Either a lot more ball being passed “traditionally” off the back of the scrum or a lot of number 8 pick ups.

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