The rolling maul is a potent weapon at lineout time but it is very rare that you see a team march the opposition back 40 metres.

It’s part and parcel of the game to see sides kick to the corner and bundle over from five metres out but have you ever seen anything as destructive as this Saracens maul?

The defending Allianz Premier 15s champions laid down a real marker by beating previously undefeated Gloucester-Hartpury in their own backyard over the weekend.

Alex Austerberry’s side prevailed 36-27 at Kingsholm, allowing Exeter Chiefs to leapfrog the hosts at the top of the table, and Marlie Packer’s try from a quick-tap penalty came off the back of a thunderous maul that only started ten metres inside the Gloucester-Hartpury half.

Read more: World Cup-winning coach calls for mauls to be BANNED

After several breakaways, the same maul continued until it got right to the tryline where Gloucester-Hartpury co-captain Mo Hunt was sin-binned for pulling it down with the ball held up.

Packer made no mistake from the resulting penalty with Saracens perhaps unfortunate to not have been awarded a penalty try with the maul nearly going the whole half of the pitch.

In fact, the distance travelled was the same as two tennis courts and more than the height of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio, Brazil and two-and-a-half Routemaster buses.

Related: How to set-up a maul quickly

Packer, who scored two tries in total, said: “We knew that we were going to have to come to Kingsholm and pull up our socks and we really did that.

“We knew we were going to have to dig deep. They came at us from kick off to the final whistle. They’ve been at the top all season, and we’ve been there many times. We knew that we had to play well but also perform for a full 80 minutes and the squad really performed.”

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