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Ready or not, here come rugby's new tackle laws

16th January, 2017
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Cornal Hendricks takes the ball up against the Wallabies. (AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA)
Expert
16th January, 2017
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As we head into the 2017 season down this part of the world, the great unknown is how the new World Rugby-prescribed tackle laws are going to play out.

Up front, any move that seeks to remove danger or the risk of danger from the game is a good thing. And just as we quickly got used to and accepted the implementation of the head injury assessment protocols, after a year or two teething period, we’ll just get on with it and the game will be the better for it.

If you’re not seen it in full, World Rugby announced in their December 15 statement that they had “redefined illegal (high) tackle categories and increased sanctions to deter high tackles via a law application guideline”.

“This will apply at all levels of the game from 3 January 2017 introducing minimum on-field sanctions for reckless and accidental contact with the head, effectively lowering the acceptable height of the tackle.The guideline will be supported with a global education programme,” the statement said.

The summary of the redefinitions boil down to this:

A reckless tackle is one in which “the player knew or should have known that there was a risk of making contact with the head of an opponent, but did so anyway”, and carries a yellow card as a minimum sanction.

AB-France

Ten days ago, Saracens prop Richard Barrington became the first player to receive a red card under the new definitions and interpretations, for making contact with the head of Exeter and England Test lock Geoff Parling.

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In what will be the first of many public debates when cards are handed out under the new laws, long-serving Saracens director of rugby, former Ireland International Mark McCall, tried to downplay Barrington’s contact as “accidental”, and that his player made contact with Parling’s shoulder.

What we’re all going to have to get used to very quickly is that it matters not what the tackler uses to make the contact, but rather where the contact is made on the tackled player.

Parling was knocked out in the tackle, which also had input from Saracens captain Brad Barritt, who was not carded at all.

The new definition around accidental contact, for what it’s worth, is where “a player makes accidental contact with an opponent’s head, either directly or where the contact starts below the line of the shoulders”, and includes situations where the ball-carrier slips into the tackle. A penalty will be awarded as a minimum sanction.

There’s no doubt tackling techniques and body positioning into contact will have to evolve. But the game evolved reasonably quickly once rucking was removed, so that’s not something we should be worried about.

How long that evolution takes is anyone’s guess, and it was this tweet from Fairfax Media’s Paul Cully early last week that put this topic on my radar.

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Teams are stepping into the unknown around the new laws and they’ve all had to tweak things in their pre-season preparations.

Blues coach Tana Umaga told New Zealand radio network NewsTalk ZB over the weekend that while he understands and agrees with the reasoning for the new tackle laws, he holds concerns around consistency of application, in the first few rounds of Super Rugby at the very least. But, he admitted, it’s just something his side has to deal with in time for Round 1.

“Some of our players just have to understand they’ve got to change their tackling technique. They have to get lower so they don’t get up around that area where we don’t know what is going to happen,” Umaga said.

“If that’s the way it’s going to be ruled, we are just going to have to adjust. We have to devise ways to cope.”

Waratahs defence coach Nathan Grey said something similar in Sydney last week.

“The golden question is the consistency around how they deliver on that,” Grey said at a Tahs presser.

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“It’s going to be hard, but I think the reasonings around why they’ve done it and why it’s in place is the right reason. They’re trying to do the right things by the players, which is great, and the referees and the administration side of things, they’ve done a really thorough process and they’re delivering it in a way that makes us confident as coaches to say ‘OK, that’s what they’ve said they’re going to be looking at, and what the expectation is around that’.

“There’s going to be some feeling out during the trials and into the first couple of rounds of Super [Rugby], but the consistency is the biggest thing and that’s all you hope for.”

Grey admitted that the Tahs were training to cope with scenarios where they have only 14, or even 13 players on the field, in anticipation of multiple cards as the ‘zero tolerance’ clampdown comes into effect.

I’d be stunned if the other 17 Super Rugby sides weren’t doing the same thing.

So, it’s not really a question of whether we’re ready for the new laws or not, because they’re in place now regardless. It does mean, however, that we should ready ourselves for a sudden spike in the number of cards handed out across the opening rounds.

The challenge for coaches and players – and fans, to be fair – is how quickly they can adjust expectations and attitudes.

It can’t be ‘what can we get away with’ anymore, but rather, ‘what technical adjustments need to be made’.

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