Bulls must jack up their rolling mauls

Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer wants his side's rolling mauls to become a battering ram in the Super 14 this year.

Meyer is worried about his team's performances up front. They have not been effective or efficient in this year's competition as the Bulls have spluttered into instead of sailing through the opposition.

But Meyer believes that referees, under severe criticism in the early part of the season, should be more strict on teams bringing down rolling mauls.

Meyer believes that this year's Super 14 has been devoid of tries from lineout drives because the referees are allowing too much leeway close to the line.

"Two years ago, in the whole Super 14, we scored one or two tries through lineout drives. There is no way you can stop a maul if the referees stick to the rule book," said Meyer.

"In last year's Super 14, about 80 percent of South African tries were scored from rolling mauls, most by us, the Cheetahs and the Sharks. So far this year it has been reffed as a free for all. Players come in from the side and sack illegally and get away with it.

"This year there haven't been many tries from lineout drives - there has probably been one or two because players are transgressing the law and getting away with it."

The Bulls have had a problem with the manner in which players have sacked their rolling mauls, especially in the game against the Western Force where two or three players at a time would pull the maul down without any sanction from the officials.

"Free State kicked twice into the corner against the Crusaders and couldn't score. At times I feel they maul better than us and they could not get over.

"We are struggling and the Sharks are struggling," said Meyer.

But Meyer said his team would need to adapt and become a lot more progressive in protecting the ball if they were to overcome the negative tactics of their opponents close to the line.

"It is true though that we aren't where we want to be with the driving mauls, but close to the line, teams adopt a seven-three approach - let the opposition take three points rather than seven.

"We aren't as effective as we could be but the way things are going this year it is the way the maul is being blown. I don't think it is something that is going to change soon and we need to adapt."

Meyer said that he was working on his side being more dominant in pressing home their physical advantage up front - one of the places where they have been below par this season.

"Other teams don't want us to build phases and that is exactly one of our strengths.

"They try to play more in broken field, while we need to ensure that we keep the play more structured and put up those phases.

"We need to enforce that on the opposition."

Meyer's approach holds fair as both the Force and Chiefs in recent weeks tried to stay away from the physical close contact that the Bulls revel in during games.

They also tried to speed up the game with quick throw-ins, so that the Bulls could not attack them in lineouts.