One of the biggest victims of Munster’s lineout trouble this season has been our driving maul.

It might not seem it, but Munster had a pretty good maul last season; we were in the top five clubs worldwide for maul win percentage (94.1%). What does this mean in practicality? When we chose to maul, we almost (a) moved forward and (b) retained possession for another phase. Now you could argue that we didn’t turn this maul security into enough tries but the facts are that it was a reliable method for compressing the opposition and advancing up the pitch.

Our lineout issues this season have robbed us of that platform in multiple games. We have become very good at the maul break but none of that is possible when the ball isn’t given a stable platform.

On Saturday night against the All Blacks XV, the maul finally “clicked” with two mauls trying against a side that prides itself on its maul defence and that had bigger, heavier men in almost every unit and role.

So what changed?

A few things.

First, on the close-range lineout opportunities, we seem to have dropped the long route running for the front lifting loosehead in favour of letting our jumping core do the bulk of the lifting. I’ve felt that our props lifting over the last month has been pretty average but that doesn’t mean they can’t add value in mauling scenarios.

In fact, they should still be pretty great at that; Ryan and Archer have always been good mauling props and there’s no reason to think that, if they are put in positions to succeed, they can’t be very useful in this area of the game on the offensive side of the ball.

Here’s an early close-range lineout with a maul feint; what do you notice?

Full Munster lineout, no receiver, neither prop used as a lifter and Stephen Archer attaching himself as the power hinge on the inside lifter with John Ryan sweeping around as a corner blocker to help screen Gavin Coombes run.

Munster scored on the position earned from this lineout and maul feint and break.

A few minutes later, Munster set up another maul feint – look at the build;

O’Mahony getting lifted in the middle by Ahern at the front and Wycherley at the back. The loosehead at the front – John Ryan – and the tighthead at the tail – Stephen Archer – join bound mauling positions on the lifters. Not lifting, joining the second layer of the maul as driving pivots.

What does a driving pivot do? We saw this two seasons ago with Munster’s use of Roman Salanoa in this role as a heavyweight pivot that would drive into the maul defence, pin it down and then let a long Munster maul pivot around him into open space.

You have to visualise the maul itself as a stake and the pivot as the point of the stake digging into and pinning down the opponent.

Right on the stroke of halftime, we got to see it in action fully.

It’s a fully deserved penalty try. Look at the detail though. Wycherley and Coombes make the lift. Ryan binds on the inside lifter – coming from the front of the lineout – and Archer binds on the back lifter from the tail of the lineout.

Keep an eye on Ahern also. He transits across the face of the maul and binds onto Archer and Hodnett. Coombes swings out to allow Archer to burrow in as the tip of the stake. Look at how long that Munster build is – it’s a 3-3-1-1 by the time Barron takes the ball at the back of the maul.

Archer then drives diagonally in, which allows Munster to flow around that diagonal drive and on towards the tryline. Archer grabs and removes one rolling defender, Ahern takes the next one and that allows Barron and the touchline side of the maul – O’Mahony and Wycherley – to roll around and add to the drive. The All Blacks XV have to infringe to stop this rolling over clean and concede the penalty try and yellow card.

You get an even better look at this principle on the try scored early in the second half.

Look at the principles;

• Props don’t lift
• They bind on the lifters from the side of the lineout they came from
• They pivot around the side

This one is a little different in that the initial pinch starts on Ryan’s side but the bulk of the rolling is done by Archer, and then a really strong drive by Ruadhan Quinn and Fineen Wycherley.

Look at Archer as this peels across – he’s looking to grab and pinch in any defender who meets his side of the drive.

Archer ends up dragging two maul defenders out of the way of Munster’s drive, and opens up the lane for Hodnett to eventually score off the back.

If our lineout work can stabilise, we can start to hide our props’ weaknesses and highlight their strengths. Our mauling work against the All Blacks XV on Saturday night is proof enough of that.