ONE of the big features of last year’s World Cup was the driving and rolling maul which saw many tries scored, not least when Japan surprised the chief exponents of the art, South Africa, with a textbook rolling maul of their own that brought the opening try for captain Michael Leitch.

It was brilliant stuff from the Japanese, matched only by Australia’s rolling mauls against Fiji, but close examination of their first two tries — both by David Pocock — show at least two illegalities by the Australian pack, in that they did not bind to each other properly and obstructed their opponents when no longer bound to the maul.

The rules state that the ball can be kept in his mitts by one player, or moved from player to player within the maul. As long as the maul keeps moving towards one of the goal lines and the players stay bound together, they can just keep piling it on or roll either way to the line. It is brutal and it is often boring to watch.

Bill Hamilton put it succinctly in an e-mail. “It may be sour grapes but I am dismayed by the increasing use of the driving maul to score tries: Glasgow have conceded five such tries in their past two games.

“Is kicking to the corners and setting up driving mauls to become the predominant tactic for all teams with a powerful pack? If well set up, the driving maul is virtually impossible to defend legally.

“In no other phase of the game is it legal for an attacker to come between the ball-carrier and the defender — it is called obstruction. Some may consider the driving maul a thing of beauty but for me it is an abomination.”

I could not have put it better myself, Bill.

When learning the maul, players are taught that you must not collapse it, or jump on top of a maul or attempt to drag another player out of a maul, unless members of the opposition have ended up on the wrong side.

In the maul, the offside line is the hindmost foot of the last team-mate bound to the maul, and players can only join in from behind that team-mate. The law says anyone coming in from the sides will be penalised. All players in the maul must also remain bound, with a full arm bind, until the maul is over.

If you become detached you must retreat behind your offside line. From that position, you can rejoin the maul if you wish.

If the maul stops moving for more than five seconds the referee must call “use it” or call a scrum and the defending side gets the put-in. But how many times do you see a maul refereed properly? That is the biggest bugbear about the driving and rolling maul — the attackers get away with murder.

The driving maul off the line-out can be beaten, and Ireland showed how in their win over South Africa in 2014 when they did not contest the line-out and then blasted men on to the ball-carrier. That is a risky defensive strategy and it did not work for Fiji against Australia. But it shows that mauls can be stopped in their tracks before they get going — probably the only way to halt them legally.

Either way, something has to be done about this aspect of the game that is now becoming so dominant in attacking play.

Do you agree or disagree with the Rucker and Bill Hamilton? Drop a line to nationalrucker@gmail.com with your views or any other points you want to make about Scottish rugby or the sport in general.

Coming soon: your chance to tell us your views on how the Six Nations will go.