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Setting up maul directly from a penalty

Why donât teams set up a driving maul directly from a penalty, rather than risk losing a scrum or line out?

Ade CollinghamSpectator, England

1 answer

ANSWERS

Jessie HOther, England

Hello Ade,

It has been shown in international test matches and premiership matches statistics that the scoring rate from Penalty Line-outs and scrums are significantly higher then from a "tap" and go penalty forming a maul.

By law a maul includes two attackers including the ball carrier and a player of the defending team. Meaning that a player would have to "risk" losing the ball in a maul from a tap and go penalty. However, if they set up a driving maul from a set piece the likeliness of ball retention and scoring is significantly higher as the ball is protected by more then two players.

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