Highlanders forwards coach Tom Donnelly says mauls are part of what makes rugby ‘beautiful’

Highlanders forwards coach Tom Donnelly says the maul is a game of physical chess worthy of appreciation, after coaching great Wayne Smith took a flamethrower to their use in the modern game.

Smith, who turned off the recent Highlanders-Western Force game due to the number of penalties and lineout drives, sparked a debate about the state of rugby by saying that he would rather watch an animal documentary that repeated mauls.

Donnelly, a noted lineout technician during his playing days, unsurprisingly took a different view.

“For me, as a forward, it’s a massive part of the game,” Donnelly said. “The amount of detail and work that has to go into having a very good maul, and also being a very good defensive side, is massive.

“’Smithy’ was a first-five, he loves running rugby and loves playing like that.

“I’m a tight forward. I probably enjoy mauling and scrummaging a wee bit more than some others, and that’s what makes our game so beautiful. It’s a game for everyone.

“There’s parts of it that suit some people and everyone has an opinion on how the game should be played.”

However, there was a caveat to Donnelly’s spirited defence.

To the layman, the maul can appear to be nothing more than a legalised form of obstruction, with two or three massive forwards often driving in front of the ball, stopping the defending team from getting their hands on it.

Perhaps in a nod to at least part of Smith’s argument, Donnelly agreed that it had become incredibly difficult to referee.

“In almost every maul, particularly now with six camera angles, and slow motion, you can pick a penalty out of 10 things that go on in a maul,” he said.

“Every part of the game is going to evolve and develop as people take advantage of different things, and the referees are working very hard to try and prevent that and make it a fair contest.

“But like anything if they referee it this way, there’ll be some intelligent forward that will say, ‘well if they’re going to defend that way maybe we can expose them by doing this’, and that for me is what makes the game so intriguing.

“It’s a massive chess game.”

That game of chess inside the bigger game will almost certainly go a long way to deciding the outcome of the Highlanders’ next game.

As they fight to make the top eight and secure a berth in the playoffs, the Highlanders face a daunting trip to Canberra to face the Brumbies, who use the maul as a big weapon.

In fact, teams that concede midfield penalties to the Brumbies often find themselves immediately under the pump after the Australians kick to touch and get their maul working from anywhere inside the opposition 22m.

With big locks Fabian Holland and Will Tucker already ruled out of the game, and Pari Pari Parkinson a major doubt, the Highlanders could find themselves under pressure at set-piece time.

However, Donnelly defended the Brumbies’ right to use the maul.

“There’s so much work and effort that goes into the Brumbies maul to make it good,” he said.

“They’re a big side. Why would you not play to your strength? That’s part of the game.

“I think for us this week, you have to be really disciplined…and have to hope that the referees are making good calls on those 50-50s.

“To be successful in this competition, you’ve got to play right up to the line and right to the boundaries, and sometimes you get it wrong.”

It’s likely that Donnelly’s defence of the dark arts will be warmly applauded by All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan.

The latter was in Dunedin last week, primarily to check in on the Highlanders’ All Blacks, but when former tight forwards get together the conversation tends to turn towards one topic.

“I actually really enjoyed it,” Donnelly confirmed. “He came down and we just talked.

“He had a look at some of our lineouts and what he thought we could be doing better, and we just chewed the fat on all things lineouts, mauls and scrums.”