ALL BLACKS COACH Steve Hansen appealed Friday for World Rugby to change the laws and allow defending sides to collapse lineout drives.
His outburst came after the All Blacks had beaten Argentina 39-18 in their Rugby Championship clash in Christchurch, scoring five tries to two and with both Pumas tries coming from what Hansen described as “bloody boring” lineout drives.
The All Blacks struggled when Argentina kept the ball tight in the maul, with Agustin Creevy’s efforts not impressing Hansen.
“I think it’s illegal obstruction,” Hansen said, adding he expected South Africa to employ the same tactic when the All Blacks play the Springboks in Johannesburg next weekend.
The massed forward drive from a lineout has become a potent try-scoring weapon for teams with big packs and Hansen said he did not believe it should be removed from the game, rather he wanted a “fair contest”.
“The easiest way is to say you can collapse it. There’s never been anyone injured in a collapsed maul yet and there’s thousands of them every week that get penalised,” he said.
“So make it legal (to collapse a drive) and then it becomes half pie a fair contest. One of the charters of the game is everything’s got to be a fair contest and I don’t believe lineout drives are,” Hansen said
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, however, acknowledged that he also enjoyed being on the right side of a lineout drive, and sugggested they would become a common tactic at the World Cup starting in England in September.
“The big boys up front, when we get the chance at it, we rub our hands together and you’ve got to make sure you have a way of stopping it as well,” he said.
“There’s no doubt as we go on this year there’s going to be a fair bit of it I’d suggest,” McCaw added.
Additional reporting from Neil Treacy
