The rolling maul is becoming a big turn-off in the World Cup - second only to the frustration produced by the spidery fingers of the TMOs touching everything that happens - and maybe rugby's governing body will now do something about the ugliest blight on the game.
Even the minnows are into it now, with Japan's success against South Africa a perfect example. Australia squeezed Fiji into submission with two more tries to rolling maul finisher David Pocock and there have been similar tries in almost every game thus far.
It's lunacy. Several players arrange themselves ahead of the ball carrier in perfect, flagrant disregard for rugby's laws of offside and obstruction. A player or players may not impede a tackler from getting to the ball carrier. Yet that is precisely what is permitted in a rolling maul.
If defenders try to counter it, they risk a penalty or a penalty try, a yellow card and possibly the disgust of their nation for losing the World Cup. The only way to stop it is to pull it down, as the ball carrier is hiding behind a battering ram of forwards (and, increasingly, backs as coaches have worked out little can be done to defend it). But that's exactly what provokes referees to award penalty tries and yellow cards.
The approved defence is to "swim" through the maul from the rear and attack the ball carrier, which is easier said than done when you have to push through a surging tide of hundreds of kilograms of players binding together to ensure you fail. "Swim" around the edges or join the side of the maul to attack the ball carrier and, you guessed it ... penalty try, yellow card.