The Rolling Maul has recently been used rather effectively a fair bit by the Saffer teams.
You must understand that the first thing our kids do in the cot when we throw them a rugby ball is the maul. At schools you will them a lot. I think Australia's problem its not seen as positive and as ugly so it will be teached out players and with the call for scoring tries and running rugby showing of skills at pace it is a forgotten tactic or ignored during development.
I myself coach youngsters here in the Cape Flats. I am not a professional but played at club level and reason for doing it is that the time playing sport takes up that time they normally go break into homes or dodging bullets or firing guns. Yes here its at the wild west.
Now I love watching teams and analysing them specially what they do off the ball and other tactics. I share it with them so they can start think tactically on the field. Always have awareness and always be 3 moves ahead.
I grew up in a small town. So your opponents were like from towns 30 to 300km away. Advantage from growing up in a small town is that you grow up together and you start playing together from the first moment you started playing rugby at school. Now when I wass in my last year of primary school we played a match that I personally will never forgett and I am sure those who played with me that never forget cause it was the proudest moment of what we achieved and the hardest game we ever played.
Now the thing is from the leagues in the smaller towns sometimes teams do not have a opposite team so you play against a team which is a age group higher or some of them play boys who are not in that age group because frankly no one checks.
Before we ran onto the field our opponents line up next to us. And I can tell you they were huge. I was the tallest guy in my team and my head reached the shoulders of their shortest guy which was their one wing. They kicked off to me I caught the ball and I just felt the force carry us back 15 meters. Within a minute they scored with a maul containing 5 guys and destroyed about 15 of us to stop it. I thought here it comes 60 70 zip loss. But one thing we were taught and learned together as a team during losses and wins is to think what to do. They are big and powerful. We always had a theme the bigger they are the harder they fall. Going into a power game with them we would be killed. They already showed us. So we tackled. Fear is a thing in the mind that can be overcome with believe. And we stood behind the poles after they scored that first try we just said. Tackle tackle and tackle. Go low and make them eat grass.
We spent the whole game between our try line and our 22. Tackling tackling. I never made so many tackles in my life and they could not get thru. They tried wide and our wing will hold on while the cover tackles him out. They had about 15 close calls of the guy being tackled into touch before going over. They could not start a maul again because we did not allow them to start one.
Sorry for the long and boring story but that is the best way to stop it. Is to make sure it do not start. At a line out the defending jumper grabbed their jumper around the waist and pull them to ground towards ourselves. That is what me and my other lock did and they could not start it. Ball being on the ground did not mean they couldn't still start it. So the supporting players (players who were lifting the jumper) should drive into the space left by their line-out jumper who has been brought to ground. We did that quickly cause that gap is there for a short moment then it would be sealed off.
Now what that did was we had access to the guy carrying the ball (link player who took it from the jumper) so we had access to the ball and we could tie it up and made it unplayable.
If your too late and they close that gap before you can do it drive aggressively towards the link player. Forget about the rest you aim for the guy with the ball. The key is to drive aggressively towards the link while its forming. Remember the can't use power while they forming it as they are setting up protection first. So the defense can use that moment to smash in aggressive and low aiming for that link player.
If others join is the idea is to fracture it and drive it backwards. Always commit 6 guys to the mall no more. The two guys you have left defend each side when the maul comes around. When it does aim and drive aggressively towards the center of it. You must split it and disrupt it. Worked for us and its a tactic we used at club level as well.
As for the game well our center intercepted the ball a minute before the end and went and score under the posts where we converted and won the game 7 -5. Our coach told us the best team did not win that day but one with the most believe had. Its all about commitment and working together