New Zealand coach Smith calls for an end to rolling maul

SYDNEY : Former All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith has called for rugby authorities to remove the rolling maul from the game entirely, calling the tactic "legalised obstruction".

Smith, one of the most highly regarded coaches in the game, led New Zealand's women to a World Cup triumph last year against an England side who had turned the catch-and-drive into an almost unstoppable weapon on a 30-match winning streak.

Kicking penalties for touch and driving a maul across the line from the ensuing lineout is also much used in the men's international game with world champions South Africa particularly adept at it.

"I don't like the driving maul as part of the game," Smith told New Zealand's Stuff Media.

"There are six or seven forwards in front of the ball. There is no access to the ball. It is legalised obstruction. I would get rid of it entirely."

Smith said a small tweak to the rules would effectively end the practice as a try-scoring option.

"You could do it very easily by changing the laws so that if the attacking team chooses to kick a penalty to touch inside the 22, then the other team gets the throw in," he added.

Queensland Reds coach and former rugby league international Brad Thorn, who won the World Cup with Smith and the All Blacks in 2011, said such a change would chip away at what makes rugby union special.

"I hear what he's saying but it's got a uniqueness," he told the Roar Rugby Podcast.

"If you take away the maul, the scrum, the lineout - you might as well make it 10 metres back and you've got league.

"Everyone goes, 'you went from league to union, and the games are getting more similar now,' but they’re light years apart as a forward. There’s breakdowns, lineouts, we don’t have anything like that in