How the 'monster maul' sparked Gloucester's march up the Premiership table

It is an award that has yet to generate any publicity, but it is the prize that every Gloucester forward covets this season.

Once a month, in a ceremony that first began at the end of last September, George Skivington, the Gloucester head coach, gathers his pack together to announce who has won the ‘mauler of the month’ award.

The prize? A massive T-bone steak and chips served by the chef at the club’s new training facility beside Kingsholm, and the player’s signature on what looks like a boxing championship belt.

The player who wins the most monthly awards will keep the belt at the end of the season. For the record, to date no player has won it twice.

Welcome to the inside story of Gloucester’s ‘monster’ maul.

It is a story that began not at Kingsholm or the club’s former training ground at Hartpury College but instead at London Irish’s Madejski Stadium in the last pre-Covid lockdown days of February 2020.

Skivington was forwards coach at Irish that day, and his pre-match analysis had centred upon the weaknesses of the Gloucester set-piece.

"We managed to win that game by taking their set-piece apart," he recalls. So when he found himself in the interview for the head coach job at Gloucester a few months later, he was confident he knew how to improve a club that had lost their way.

"My analysis showed me the set-piece needed a lot of work, I think in the previous two years they had scored four tries from a maul," he adds. "They had other strengths but that was an area that needed work and was suited to my particular skill-set."

'There were some dark days'

A former lock forward who had spells at Leicester, Wasps and Irish, who had also captained the England Saxons side, Skivington insists there is no secret to a successive maul apart from hard work, repetition and buy-in from the players.

And so, 18 months ago, mauling drills became the major emphasis in pre-season, day after day.

Gloucester captain Lewis Ludlow admits it came as a shock to the forwards. "There were some dark days, sitting in the changing room thinking ‘this is relentless’. We would look at each other and say ‘surely we can’t be doing that again?’ And then we would go out the following week and do more mauling and for longer.

"We were a team that was massively fit running-wise. But mauling requires a totally different fitness. So when the backs were away doing their running, we would be pulling or pushing sleds with weights on them for 15 or 20 metres, wrestling each other, scrum and maul against each other. Day after day."

Drills included mauling set-ups, to fine-tune their formation, while the physical work would start at three-on-three bouts and move up to an eight-man pack attacking a 12-man defence.

"The work we have put in has not only given us the fitness to maul effectively even at the end of a game, but also clarity of our roles," added Ludlow.

"Sometimes in a game, the backs will come up to us and say they need momentum to get an attack going and can we set up a maul. You look around the circle and there are eight blokes standing there nodding their heads. ‘Yeah, we can do that.’"

Skivington says it is the players like Ludlow, Freddie Clarke and Ruan Ackermann who now drive the process and take pride in the effectiveness of their maul.

"It the hardest part of the game for a forward," adds Skivington. "Mauling is extremely intense and sometimes you end up in a very awkward position trying to find your way forward,” added Skivington.

"Some defenders will fly into you, some try to sack you to the ground, pull you over or twist you around. So the jumper who is landing and the lifters around him need to have a stable base to withstand a serious impact.

"Then the rest of the pack need to be really tight, have a strong bind with arms and hips and drive their legs forward, sometimes from a static start. It only takes one player not to be fully committed for the maul to fail."

Skivington insists he is not much of a stats man, but in this case, they do not appear to lie when revealing just how devastating his side’s mauling game has become this season, spearheading their eye-catching revival this season. The club that was months from running out of money during the first lockdown and finished in 11th place last season have now emerged as genuine title contenders.

Skivington’s side have scored 31 tries from 24 mauls from line-outs - including two in their victory at Saracens in their last Premiership match - with an overall average of 1.2 tries per maul.

To put into context, the side in second-place, Premiership leaders Leicester Tigers, average 0.8 tries per maul while defending champions Harlequins, are still waiting for their first try from a maul this season.

Many of Gloucester’s tries scored by their backline have also come off the momentum generated by a maul, and it has been also used to relieve pressure in defence.

To underscore that point, Gloucester are currently averaging 29 metres gained per game via their maul, 10 metres more than the next best side.

"Who needs to run or kick the ball?" adds Ludlow, with a chuckle. "Just maul it."

It is a back-to-basics sentiment that has also stirred the hearts of the Gloucester faithful, rekindling memories when forward menace was the staple diet of The Shed. It has won admiration too from former players including Phil Blakeway, a prop forward from England’s 1980 Grand Slam side and club legend Andy Deacon.

"The Shed sing this song called ‘We are the Gloucester boys’ and previously I had only ever heard it after the game," adds Ludlow.

"But in our victory against Bristol in December, the game was in the balance, and we won a crucial turnover in our 22, kicked the ball out, mauled the line-out and got another penalty. And The Shed started singing that song. When you hear that and the fans are going mental, it is just a great place to play."