English rugby to trial lower tackling height law to make sport safer

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is to introduce a trial law lowering the height of a legal tackle, The Times reports. 

Designed to make the sport safer, the law changes in next season’s Greene King IPA Championship in England’s second tier will mean players must tackle below the armpits instead of the line of the shoulders.

All 43 games in the cup competition’s pool stages plus the play-off rounds will see the trial used.

The Times’s chief rugby correspondent Owen Slot says that the trial is the first of its kind in the UK. He writes: “It has been pushed through by the RFU, which has stated that evidence shows the game will be safer if the law on tackles changes.”

The BBC says that in May English rugby bosses published an an “eight-point action plan” in response to the annual injury report that revealed a number of “significant challenges for player welfare”.

Injury prevention

Nigel Melville, the RFU professional rugby director, said in a statement: “The RFU is committed to an evidence-based approach to injury prevention.

“We know from our latest professional rugby injury surveillance report that 47% of all match injuries are associated with the tackle and that concussion accounted for 19% of all injuries to the ball carrier and 43% of all injuries to the tackler, highlighting the tackle as the key game event when developing concussion reduction strategies.

“We believe lowering the height of the tackle will benefit both the ball carrier and the tackler. The Championship Cup provides an opportunity for us to assess the impact of lowering the height of the tackle on the elite adult game and will be a critical part of helping us develop game-wide approaches to concussion and injury reduction.”

Changing player behaviour in the tackle

The RFU’s decision follows World Rugby’s lead when it announced a number of dedicated law trials aimed at “reducing the risk of head injury by changing player behaviour in the tackle”, the England Rugby website reported in May. The trial took place at the World Rugby U20 Championship and U20 Trophy.

In reponse to the RFU announcement, World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont said: “World Rugby applauds the RFU and the Championship Cup clubs for embracing this important trial.

“The global game is committed to an evidence-based approach to injury prevention and the outcomes from this trial, coupled with those from the World Rugby U20 Championship and U20 Trophy events, will provide World Rugby with comprehensive data and feedback to inform our continued commitment to further reducing concussion risk in rugby.”