New anti-drive laws have had reverse effect

REVISED maul laws are responsible for a startling increase in front rowers crossing the try-line so far in this season’s Premiership, according to Saracens coach Alex Sanderson.

Last season, front row forwards crossed the whitewash 59 times, equating to 9.6 per cent of the 616 tries scored over the top-flight’s regular season campaign.

In the first three rounds of Premiership action this season, however, front rowers bagged 18.6 per cent of the 97 tries scored, with hookers accounting for 13 of them.

New laws mean players in possession of the ball can no longer slide to the back of a maul, which was designed to reduce its effectiveness as an attacking weapon. Instead, hookers have been cashing in, with Exeter’s Luke CowanDickie leading the try-scoring charts after last week’s hat-trick against struggling Harlequins. Sarries forwards coach Sanderson told The Rugby Paper: “The revised laws were designed to take the maul out of the game, but it’s almost had the opposite effect. Teams seem to be adapting to the new laws pretty well and mauling more than they did last year.

“We thought the longer transference of the ball from front to back would make mauls more difficult to set-up, but if you’re unable to disrupt the lineout it’s actually harder to stop now and teams are looking to attack space around it.”

While the maul remains a productive source of tries, overall try-scoring in the Premiership is up from 4.7 to 5.4 per game and Sanderson, left, believes England’s success under Eddie Jones is encouraging teams to also spread the ball wide.

He added: “On the back of England’s success I know our guys came back with a different attacking mindset and whilst teams are used to going through the phases, you’re now looking to break teams down in three or four phases.

“Eddie and his coaches are trying to get people on to the same page.”