Wallabies slam England tactics

Australian coach Eddie Jones believes England’s rolling maul tactics are fundamentally illegal and has called on referees to adjudicate on that area of the game more closely.

The Wallabies coach described the fearsome mauls as simply a much bigger, “road-train” version of the offence known as ’truck and trailer’, which involves the ball carrier being preceded into a tackle by one of his own players.

The famous road-trains of Australia are trucks of around 650 horsepower used for hauling massive loads in up to four trailers weighing nearly 200 tons across Outback highways.

“If you look at some of the examples, it becomes a big version of the ’truck and trailer’,” Jones said at a press conference in Brisbane.

“One of the key structures of our game is that you can contest possession and if you’ve got a situation where there’s actually no contest for possession, that you have a ’road-train’ in process, then it’s something that we need to look at very carefully.

“Obstruction can take different forms and certainly it could be something that we need to look at.”

Jones’ concerns echoed those of former Wallabies captain John Eales, who was quoted in Brisbane’s Courier Mail newspaper saying the systems used by England were illegal.

“There is some validity in what he’s saying,” said Jones of Eales’ comments that, in particular, England openside flanker Neil Back was often protected by his pack despite being in possession and not bound to the maul.

“If the maul is refereed to the letter of the law, then that no longer becoms a maul and the law is quite explicit in the fact that the ball carrier has to be in contact with the defending side,” said Jones.

“Realistically, it’s not going to be refereed like that, so I think what we are talking about is degrees of layering of obstruction.”

He also agreed with Eales on the subject of the direction from which England players join mauls.

Jones added: “We’re very hard, at the tackle, on people joining in front of the ball, very hard. In some of the ’road-trains’ we have had some people joining in front of the ball and that definitely shouldn’t be allowed.”

Asked if he felt other teams did a similar thing, Jones was quick to point the finger at Clive Woodward’s men as the sole culprits: “I’ve only seen that example and it’s something we’ve got to review.”

“You find that little things come into the game and if they’re not picked up on then they become a bigger problem, and Ealesy thinks it’s a problem and he’s a guy who’s got a lot of rugby experience,” he said.

Jones’ comments are likely to further agitate the already troubled waters between Australia and England, with Jones and Woodward regularly trading barbed comments via the media.

But Jones tried to play down his own role in that situation: “It’s not coming from us. I’m just giving you a bit of commentary.”

Australia are in Brisbane for Saturday’s match against Romania at Suncorp Stadium, for which Jones has named a virtually unchanged line-up from their opening win against Argentina.

The only change has been forced on Jones by the head and shoulder injuries suffered by lock David Giffin when he fell awkwardly in a line-out. He has been replaced by Daniel Vickerman.