Cane defends rolling maul
Chiefs captain Sam Cane has strongly defended the place of the rolling maul in the sport, ahead of his side’s Super Rugby battle with the experts of that set piece – the Brumbies – in Hamilton tonight.
Chatter across the Tasman this week has seen the maul come under fire for ruining the game as a spectacle, and for being a onesided contest that is near impossible to stop, featuring players in front of the ball which goes against all rugby’s offside conventions.
But while his 3-0 team will have the tricky task of trying to halt that powerful Brumbies set piece at FMG Stadium Waikato, Cane was certainly of the belief that the maul was a legitimate piece of the game that teams should be able to use if they’re good enough.
‘‘It’s a special part of rugby,’’ said Cane, who, as a loose forward has been in the thick of a fair few over the years.
‘‘Look, a team can win games off the back of that – drive from their defensive end, win a penalty, kick and go again. So it’s a serious weapon when teams have a good driving maul, I think it’s awesome that it’s in rugby, it makes our game so unique.’’
There have been 13 tries directly from mauls in the opening three rounds of this year’s competition, with the Jaguares leading the way with five (four in last weekend’s win over the Reds in Buenos Aires), followed by the Brumbies with three – all to hooker Folau Fainga’a in last Saturday’s loss to the Highlanders in Canberra.
Rugby Australia director of rugby Scott Johnson is lobbying World Rugby to stop backs being allowed to join a driving maul, saying it should be limited to those in a lineout, like at a scrum, to avoid so much obstruction.
Former Wallabies coach John Connolly feels the maul is affecting the quality of the game and spectator enjoyment, and suggests limiting lineouts inside the 22-metre line to four-man affairs, with other players unable to join until it moves 2m towards the tryline, as he sees it creating more attacking opportunities around the edges.
Other suggestions include making the collapsing of a maul legal, or to put a limit on the number of tries you can score from it in a match.
The Brumbies have made an art of collecting points from their lineout drives over recent years, and have got used to the criticism.
Last year, following their win over the Blues, assistant coach Laurie Fisher wrote on Twitter: ‘‘Part of me wants to burr up over some of the half arsed commentary about the style of our win on Saturday but my dominant feeling is F... them.’’
Super Rugby, Rd 4 Chiefs v Brumbies FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton, today, 7.05pm
Chiefs: Damian McKenzie, Sean Wainui, Anton Lienert-Brown, Alex Nankivell, Sam McNicol, Aaron Cruden, Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, Pita Gus Sowakula, Sam Cane (c), Luke Jacobson, Mitchell Brown, Michael Allardice, Atu Moli, Bradley Slater, Aidan Ross.
Reserves: Samisoni Taukei’aho, Reuben O’Neill, Ross Geldenhuys, Naitoa Ah Kuoi, Mitchell Karpik, Lisati Milo-Harris, Kaleb Trask, Quinn Tupaea.
Brumbies: Tom Banks, Solomone Kata, Tevita Kuridrani, Irae Simone, Andy Muirhead, Noah Lolesio, Joe Powell, Pete Samu, Will Miller, Rob Valetini, Murray Douglas, Cadeyrn Neville, Allan Alaalatoa (c), Connal McInerney, James Slipper. Reserves: Lachlan Lonergan, Scott Sio, Tom Ross, Nick Frost, Lachlan McCaffrey, Ryan Lonergan, Bayley Kuenzle, Toni Pulu.
This week, lock Cadeyrn Neville took his own swipe. ‘‘There’s a lot of opinions out there,’’ he said. ‘‘It doesn’t feel unattractive when the referee’s putting his hand up and blowing his whistle for five points.’’
Cane said forwards coach Neil Barnes had put the onus on them to be able to defend the Brumbies’ maul (which won’t have Fainga’a this time due to a toe injury), with the Chiefs having conceded both a player (Tyler Ardron’s yellow card) and a try to the Sunwolves in that department last weekend.
But the skipper was also wary of what else the ‘‘very dangerous’’ top-of-the Aussieconference visitors would have on offer, despite them being last in the competition for metres made, clean breaks, offloads, kicks from hand and turnovers won, and who have lost their last 13 games in New Zealand, dating back to 2014.
‘‘You just have to look through their team, they’re stacked full of Wallabies,’’ he said.
‘‘We know their maul is their real go-to, but you can’t let that take away [from other areas], they’ve also got so many hard ballcarriers, they’re a team that just does the simple things really well, and they’ll continue to do it for 80 minutes.’’
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