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Lest I be accused of sour grapes, I have chosen the day after the Wallaby win to raise a sore point. The Springboks rolling maul is performed illegally.
Each time they employed it during the Brisbane Tri-Nations test, they had the usual lurker at the back with the ball. Players from in front were leaving the maul and coming in again or simply joining it, but not from the back. They joined on each occasion in front of the player with the ball, thus shoring up the gaps in front of the ball carrier and to each side.
The law is quite clear – any player must join from behind the foot of the hindmost team mate. In each instance, the hindmost player was the ball carrier.
I have watched all of their games since the first Lions test. Not once have they performed a rolling maul legally. The ball carrier unbinds and then rebinds, players join in front of the ball carrier, the pod containing the ball carrier detaches from the pod in front but then rejoins again.
This is all prohibited by the laws.
A rolling maul is difficult enough to defend against without blatant obstruction. It’s alright if you get away with it, and good luck to them for that, but it is just so easy for a referee to see it.
This was glaringly obvious in the Brisbane test.
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