There are also some strict rules that apply once the tackle has been made, and the tackled player and the ball are held off the ground. See below:

A maul occurs when the ball carrier is held by one or more opponents and one or more of the ball carrier’s team mates holds on (binds) as well (a maul therefore needs a minimum of three players). The ball must be off the ground, and the ball carrier held off the ground. If the ball carrier can get his knee to the ground within a couple of seconds it becomes a .......... ruck!.

The team in possession of the ball at the maul can attempt to gain territory by driving their opponents back towards the opponents’ goal line. The ball can then be passed backwards between players in the maul to the last player and continue forward momentum of the maul (perhaps with goal of pushing over the try-line and scoring a try) and/or eventually passed to a player who is not in the maul, or a player can leave the maul carrying the ball and run with it.

If a legal ball-high tackle is made by defending team in open play, and the defending team manages to have a maul called and ultimately (after 5-10 seconds?) the ball does not emerge, it is a turn-over and defending team get a scrum put-in. That is often the goal of defending teams. more about all that in this section, but again the first step is to read and understand the maul laws!