'All parts of the game': World Rugby set to follow RFU's lead and lower tackle height

World Rugby has thrown its weight behind the Rugby Football Union’s decision to lower the tackle height to the waist and indicated that they too will be introducing similar measures at the elite level.

The RFU last week banned tackles above the waistline in the community game.

The monumental change sparked outrage across the world, with huge sections of the rugby community up in arms.

RFU boss Bill Sweeney is also coming under pressure to keep his job, with reports stating that a vote of no confidence is being prepared at the community game with close to 250 clubs supporting the special general meeting in the wake of the governing body’s new tackle laws.

But, in an interview with The Telegraph, World Rugby boss Alan Gilpin backed the RFU’s stance.

“The RFU obviously is in the process of implementing some changes around tackle height that we support,” Gilpin told The Telegraph.

“Because we know, from all of the research and science and medicine, that lowering the tackle height is a really important part of making the game safer.

World Rugby is considering following the RFU’s lead and lowering the tackle height to below the waist. Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

The Telegraph also reports World Rugby is planning to stage a global law trial from January 1, 2024, initially at the amateur level on lowering the tackle height. A decision on whether the prohibition on tackles would be above the waist or the sternum.

Any changes at the top end won’t be introduced overnight.

“Yes, we’re looking to make sure that we are implementing a lower tackle height across all parts of the game,” Gilpin said.

“How that’s actually implemented is slightly different in the community game to the elite game.”

For more than a decade World Rugby have increasingly attempted to get on top of foul play and, particularly, any contact with the head.

While Sam Warburton’s red card in the 2011 World Cup semi-final sparked fierce debate, the increased prevalence of the television match official in the years either side of the 2019 tournament has been met with mixed reaction.

World Rugby’s officiating has been influenced by medical research which has shown that players are more likely to be concussed from head to head, upright contact. It also comes as World Rugby and the RFU face a number of lawsuits against them for historically failing to adequately protect and educate players around the dangers of concussion.

It has led World Rugby to come down heavily on defenders who fail to drop their tackle height and make contact with the head.

World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin (L) says the tackling height will be lowered in the years to come. Photo: Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images

Gilpin said it was World Rugby’s duty to usher through change and said issuing clear communication was crucial to their end goal of making the game safer.

“There’s a lot of work to do to educate people. But we’ve got to, as a sport, try to find that really difficult but hugely-important balance between safety but making the game entertaining to watch,” Gilpin told The Telegraph.

“It’s not binary. It’s not one or the other. It’s how do we make the game safer and a better spectacle to watch and a better game to play?

“It’s tough because it’s a really, really complex message to deliver. On one level, it’s very simple. We know from all the research that’s been done and is incredibly comprehensive, you’re four-and-a-half times more likely to sustain a head injury when you tackle from an upright position than when the tackler is bent at the waist.

“We need to get players tackling lower at every part of the game. Obviously, there’s an elite part of the game where we’re doing a huge amount of work and we’ve used sanctions, and red cards in particular, trying to drive changes in behaviour.

“When you look at the community game, it’s challenging to roll that out on a global basis.

“It requires significant buy-in from the game in different parts of the world.

“You’ll always have the traditionalists, I guess, who understandably say, ‘Stop tweaking things and don’t change too much, because we’re really concerned about losing the inherent fabric of the sport’ – and we all absolutely get that.

“At the same time, we’ve got to make sure that we are attracting people to the sport that is safe to play – or is as safe to play as a sport that’s a contact one can be.

“There’s always work to do in implementing change and how you can consult around change and how you communicate and educate around change. But the key message is let’s get the tackle height lower at every level of the game because that will reduce – absolutely reduce – the number of head injuries that we see in rugby. And that’s really important if, again, we’re going to win the battle for the hearts and minds of not just the young people we want to play the game, boys and girls, but the mums and dads who may be concerned about injuries in rugby.

“So, we’ve got a responsibility from a World Rugby perspective, to work hard with our member federations around the world.”