Paul Lewis: Why rugby must ban the rolling maul once and for all

England launch another unstoppable rolling maul against the Black Ferns. Photo / Getty

Here’s hoping the next New Zealand-England clash doesn’t yield six rolling maul tries – because every time one is scored, it seems to me a little part of the game of rugby dies.

It says a lot for that remarkable Black Ferns-Red Roses World Cup final that the game transcended the six tries coming from the objectionable rolling maul. Six! In the same match. It’s barely credible.

However, I must concede the thrilling end was also down to the rolling maul – or the one England planned before Joanah Ngan-Woo broke yet another convention, contesting and winning the lineout.

But let’s face it. That match was an exception – managing to lift itself above the sheer, crushing boredom of six rolling maul tries. It’s the perfect vehicle for this lament as it is not an excuse to lambast the beaten team for pursuing their boring advantage in this area while the giddy, galloping Ferns happily danced around the plodding shire horses of England. Nope, can’t do that; the Ferns pulled off the rolling maul trick twice themselves.

That final enshrined the personality and colour women have brought to the game. It is also a perfect showcase for saving the very personality and colour of the game – by mounting a campaign to end the rolling maul once and for all. Or if not end it, to end its influence.

Sport thrives on the unexpected, the creative, the unusual. Flair is what ignites the crowds, not repetitive routine. Imagine that final without the rolling maul tries. What kind of boosted spectacle might it then have been? We can only imagine; rugby’s leaders have clearly accepted that the rolling maul is a valid weapon.

It’s boring, predictable and colourless; it makes a virtue out of a vice – using people in offside positions to shield the ball-carrier and obstruct defences. Done properly, it is almost impossible to defend. It gives the attacking side a wholly unfair advantage – and causes yellow cards to further affect the game as defenders desperately infringe.

So it influences the game on a wider basis than just a lineout close to the goalline. How many times have we had to watch as sides construct a rolling maul upfield, winning a penalty and then – yawn of yawns – kicking for the corner and a lineout and yet another rolling maul. It has all the beauty of cat sick.

The soul of rugby is running and passing. The battle for possession is also an intrinsic part of the game. In a rolling maul, there is no battle for possession as the attacking side is legally able to prevent defenders from contesting ownership of the ball – using obstructive actions that, in any other part of the game, would result in penalties and yellow cards.

So, accepting we cannot uninvent the rolling maul, how do we geld it? All World Rugby has to do is to desire to return the game to its running and passing DNA – though some cynics will say the northern hemisphere has too much invested in it to change things now.

The Black Ferns celebrate stopping a maul - and winning the World Cup. Photo / photosport.nz

How about these ideas for neutering the maul:

⋅ All penalties awarded from a rolling maul do not return possession to the side kicking for touch. That would take care of the boring lineout-march-penalty-kick-lineout-march-try; the defending side would get the lineout throw.

⋅ Alternatively (or as well as), ban rolling mauls in the defending side’s 22m zone. That would mean more emphasis on other set moves from the lineout, more use of the backs and creativity.

⋅ To keep the ball in play more, every rolling maul would be permitted only one stoppage before the halfback has to clear the ball. If the maul keeps moving forward, fine, but as soon as it halts the ball must be cleared. Conversely, put a time limit on the maul – up to 45 seconds, perhaps. At the end of that time, policed by the referee or the TMO, the ball has to be cleared.

⋅ Finally, some will point out that de-escalating the maul could lead to defending teams deliberately infringing – safe in the knowledge that the threat of shipping seven points is gone. The answer to that: make penalties from defending a rolling maul worth four points.

OK, maybe the last is a bit radical. But that cracking World Cup final saw women’s rugby triumphing in spite of all those rolling mauls – not because of them. The women imbued the game of rugby with a personality and fan interaction rarely, if ever, seen before.

No one, for instance, could imagine any All Black grabbing the mic and leading the stadium in a rendition of Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi, as Ruby Tui did. Now it’s time for World Rugby to grab the mic and lead the tangi for the rolling maul.