How to catch-and-drive securely in three weeks

You won’t be starting from scratch when it comes to perfecting maul skills, simply building on what players already know.

Most mauls start from a lineout – this is also known as a catch-and-drive. Gavin Blackburn’s activity explains and demonstrates this.

You can start a maul elsewhere, but a good drive needs at least four players to give it structure and balance. 

This is best started where all the forwards are close together and on their feet. It is not hard to do, just hard to perfect. 

Follow my three-week guide to perfecting maul skills, below, and watch those tries pile up.

Week 1: Bind and drive

Get your players used to driving as a group. What are the best body positions for this? Your front rowers will give you the best answer!

Practise working in groups of three against two defenders, where the ball carrier binds onto the back of two players who are driving forward.

Add and subtract players. They will soon learn where they can bind to get the most shove, and stop opposition players sliding through to grab the ball.

Week 2: Drive and roll

Now the players are used to binding, put them against a defence that initially stops them and forces the maul to shift to progress.

Set up a 5v3 in a 20m long x 7m wide channel. Every time the maul is stopped, the ball carrier moves left or right, with a player bound onto them to ’roll’ the maul to a different point of contact. The other players bind onto the new structure. 

As ever, communication between the players is key.

Week 3: Set to drive

In your lineout session, set up the best wedge of players to take the ball forward, using the ’catch and drive’ activity on page 4 and skills already practised. 

Ian Diddams then shows you how to ’maul like a lion’ in this activity.

Know your maul laws

The two most important lineout maul laws to remember in attack are:

1. Don’t get in front of the ball carrier before you make contact with the opposition.
2. Law 17.6 (e): When a maul has stopped moving forward, it may start moving forward again providing it does so within five seconds. If the maul stops moving forward a second time, and if the ball is being moved and the referee can see it, a reasonable time is allowed for the ball to emerge. If it does not emerge within a reasonable time, a scrum is ordered to the team not in possession.