The Brumbies have one of the best mauls in club rugby. Prior to the lockdown, the Brumbies had a 100% completion rate off 16 mauls and the second-best maul conversion rate (3 tries) in Super Rugby 2020, bettered only by Los Jaguares five tries off an 88% completion rate from 26 attempted mauls.

This pattern has continued in Super Rugby AU at close to the same efficiency but then, why wouldn’t it? The Brumbies have been known for their maul work for years and it’s no surprise to see the same is true in 2020. The maul is a vital component of what the Brumbies want to do and they relentlessly chase situations where they can bring their maul into the game.

If you look at the Brumbies patterns during games, they actively spurn kickable goal kicking opportunities early in the game to go down the line instead. This translates over to Bayley Kuenzle goalkicking rating.

		Success %	Avg Difficulty Rating	Kicker Rating	VA Score
		60.0% (6 out of 10)	5.72 (out of 10)	3.830 (out of 10)	-2

He’s only attempted 10 kicks in Super Rugby and they’ve all been conversions. His average difficulty rate on his kicks is rated as the highest in the competition and that reflects that he’s only attempted one of these kicks from between the 15m lines.

All the rest have been attempted from the tramlines.

The Brumbies have only attempted two kicks at goal from penalty advantage in Super Rugby AU and they’ve made one of them – the penalty that won the game against the Reds. Every other penalty advantage has been driven down the line for a lineout and, depending on the range, a catch and drive opportunity.

The secret to the Brumbies maul is that they know when to utilise it. They aren’t mauling from mid-range all that often but the minute the get an opportunity to send the ball into the 22, they attack with a highly technical, high intensity maul build that few teams in Super Rugby AU have had an answer for.

The biggest feature of the Brumbies best maul work is their use of pre-binds, something I discussed in this webinar about the maul. Have a gander at this maul from their loss to the Brumbies and look for the qualities I discussed on that video.

There’s lots of talking points there. The lineout scheme itself is smooth and has very few moving parts so the drive component of the maul has plenty of time to get set. The first thing to spot; the prop has a pre-bind on the lifter and the receiver.

This means that the Rebels are at a disadvantage before they ever start to counter-shove. Their position at the top of a jump without an aerial content is already too passive.

They need to get hands-on the lifters early – not shoving, but waiting for the change in direction – to ensure a unified counter-shove to match the Brumbies. The Brumbies, as you’d expect, are already bound and ready to shove the minute the ball is transferred to #7.

All the main units are in place to start driving on the Brumbies terms. When Sio joins the back of the maul, the Brumbies are already lower than the Rebels and are locked in a position to push forward. Whatever happens from here, the Rebels are going to move backwards – they are too high relative to the low, powerful set of the Brumbies.

When Fainga’a joins the back of the maul, the Brumbies lock low into their build, grip down on the outside fabric (jersey ideally, but shorts will do) of the man in front of them and then move forward.

The Rebels have no answer for them even though they started counter-shoving first. The Brumbies are patient with their build because they know that if they are pre-bound and pre-locked, they will drive under a disorganised counter. That’s exactly what happens. The Rebels swarm up on the infield side but that only exposes the try line to the Brumbies who just keep their core moving forward.

The scrumhalf has the absolute audacity to take the ball off the hooker to score once the Brumbies maul moves beyond the Rebels resistance but the build made this almost inevitable.

Melbourne got a lot of success by targeting the Brumbies in the air to prevent these maul situations from even occurring in the first place. Whenever the Brumbies got that combination of an early bind and lock, the Rebels struggled to live with them.

Melbourne were forced to infringe early here even though the Brumbies waited for the shove until the hooker had joined. This maul was going nowhere but forward from the second the Brumbies started the push. Look at the traits; #17 prebound to the lifter and the receiver to absorb the shove from the touchline defenders.

The lifters bind tight onto the arse of the jumper on the landing to create an arrowhead at the front of the maul. This is to reduce the surface area at the front of the maul and make it difficult for the opponent to get a unified front of players in direct opposition to the direction of the maul.

You can see the grip they use from a maul that the Western Force stood off a few week’s prior.

This prevents the opponent from splitting up through the middle and they are braced into a forward position by the pre-bind of the player behind them.

When they don’t get that pre-bind, they can get blown back the same as anyone else. Look at this for an example even though I’m 90% sure this was a maul break scheme.

Young Rob Valetini doesn’t close the gap in time to pre-bind onto Frost and the front of the maul collapses before #7 Thomas Cusack can swivel the ball out to the scrumhalf with Fainga’a looping to draw in the opposition scrumhalf and expose the blindside.

When the Brumbies get their build right, they’re a handful for most teams outside the Crusaders and Jaguares. Here’s a mauled try scored against the Western Force that has all of the qualities.

• Simple lineout scheme to maximise build time.
• Pre-bind on the lifter (although #18 is a little tight on his timing)
• Low, pre-bound structure.
• Arrowhead at the front to isolate pressure on a small number of opponents
• Full, low, straight drive once the hooker joins

The Western Force have nothing for them. That said, they were a bit fortunate that Blue #18 was a little passive on the lifter. Yellow #18 is a little late with his pre-bind but he makes up for that by getting a bind on then hopping straight into the perfect pushing position.

With the arrowhead set, Blue #18 is shoving one against 7 while the Brumbies angle all the forward pressure onto the Force player coming over the top and the one player directly behind him.

Blue #18 can’t take the pressure and breaks off. The Force have nothing for them and Brumbies power through for a massive push over try.

If the Brumbies were a little sharper at the lineout against the Rebels I really believe that the score could have been a lot closer. Either way, their maul is a key component in their attack and long may it continue.