NRL has to aim low on tackling

plus the players not in the tackle can cover the offload. more offloads come from gang tackles because there's noone around covering the offload.

Yes a player will change direction to avoid being tackled. It is up to the defender to tackle around the legs and not put the head in danger. The tackler has to go in hard with the shoulder and wrap the arms around the legs. Loose tackling may cause injuries just as head clashes are a common result of upper body tackling.

Indeed TB3. Tackling effectively low is a real art. I think there would be less injuries, particularly to knees and ankles where attackers are bent and twisted under a 3 man wrestle.

It depends on the speed of the runner. If he is running fast there is little chance of him getting a good pass away although this would be a sublime skill that some ball carriers do have. If he is stepping away from defenders he probably needs to be taken high, ball and all.

Yes call it a dominant tackle and allow the tackler time to get up and stand at the PTB before the referee allows the player to play the ball. One of the best low tacklers was Johnny Rapper who continually put people on the ground with force proportional to the runner's speed. The tackled player would hit the earth, a heat sink, and lose more energy hitting the ground than John did in performing the tackle as it was blocking the legs.

It's not knee lifters that cause this. It's the late movement of the ball carrier, its poor technique and its a clash of heads. Most concussions are not the result of foul play.

However if we reward low tackling we’ll see an increase in the accidental concussions from hips and knees to heads. Knee lifters will be put on report or sin binned or sent off. Tackling low requires good timing otherwise the tackle can be broken and possibly some minor injuries. A second tackler can wrap up the ball carriers arms to stop passing and be allowed to hold down for a few seconds as happens with high body tackling.

Don't be ridiculous, the wrestle has been completely removed from the game, havn't you heard?

The wrestle is leading to many more head knocks to me. The technique to grabble, grab, engage the runner puts the heads of both the defender and runner in dangerous positions. To me you have to outlaw any contact to the head, that includes head clashes from that dangerous technique. Reward the correct technique by allowing those tackles longer to get off. By that is very open to interpretation.

The thing that exacerbates this too is that in a three man tackle the referee takes ages to call held even when the progress of the attacking player is definitely gone. I suppose that the generous argument is that they are allowing for that miracle offload but they happen so rarely and generally the result is a human pile up

I would argue more offloads happen within the wrestle then in a snapping legs tackle. Passing a ball while falling (otherwise known as the miracle ball) is very hard to execute.

I think you need to go back and look at the actual incidents, Jackaroo. Just in round 2, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak threw out the arm in an old-fashioned coat hanger and Kaufusi dropped the elbow onto a players head. These two alone have nothing to do with tacking low. I can't comment on the others that made the judiciary, but tackling high, ie below the shoulders is fine and should remain a part of the game. Tackles that are higher than that should be hammered both on the field through sin bins/send offs and by long suspensions

you need to wrap up the ball though. Attackers will offload all day if they are getting tackled low all the time.

When a defender tackles a player around the legs he must release almost immediately or inevitably prompt a tackle count restart. This is a bug bear of mine and has been for some time. A player makes a classic legs tackle and has to release immediately, but we are allowed to have 3 or 4 make the tackle up high and then peel off one by one. What's worse if the legs tackle stops a break to save a try and he hangs on, the player can be sent to the bin for a professional foul. But I do agree that an upper body tackle is probably safer, but not necessarily with 4 players involved. Can we limit it to 2? The better solution, as mentioned, is to come down harder on those tackles that are high and have the capacity to cause concussion.

I’d like to see a low one on one tackle rewarded. At the moment the attacker gets the benefit. Call it a dominant tackle.

I agree The penalties for high tackles -particularly the ones that take players out of a game - are woefully inadequate That’s a way easier fix to start with than changing every players tackling techniques which as you say maybe just push the issue down the line The wrestle isn’t the only reason coaches want their players tackling upper body... it’s also to wrap the ball up

However if we reward low tackling, players will go for that more often, and we'll see an increase in the accidental concussions from hips and knees to heads. Its a difficult balancing act. I think the upper body tackle would be safest, when done properly. Look at the master of the wrestle, Cam Smith. He would make 40+ tackles a game, and yet I don't recall him ever accidently knocking someone out (not counting the grapple tackle incidents as accidental here). Wrapping up the upper body is a fairly safe technique, however the issue is we see players swinging arms and elbows carelessly. I think a better approach is for the NRL to come down hard. If a concussion isn't caused by something incidental, it should result in a compulsory suspension and sin bin. It may be hard and some people will blow up abou it turning into a game of oztag, but for player welfare, thats what needs to be done.