French ‘chaos’ warning over lower Welsh tackle height

Welsh rugby’s community game has been told its new lower tackle height comes with a “chaos” warning for up to “three years”.

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) says male and female players older than under-12s must tackle below the sternum.

WRU community rugby chief Geraint John backs the move, but said: “As rugby France said to us, you’ve got to get through the chaos.”

The rule change comes into effect on Saturday, 1 July.

Anything between sternum and shoulder will result in a penalty and tackles above that area will result in the same sanctions as before, often a red card.

The Welsh men’s Indigo Premiership and competition involving the four professional Welsh rugby regions will be exempt from the trial, but all leagues below that – including schools, college and university games – will be included.

In the girls’ and women’s game, the trial will apply at all club and schools levels above the age of 12.

John added: “It will be difficult come September we’ll have thousands of players playing the game.

“Will we get every decision right? No… the first couple of months are going to be chaotic, there could be penalties.

“But you’ve got to look at what we’re trying to do in the long-term. I’ll ask, please be patient, please respect our referees, they’re not going to get every decision right.

“How do players change a habit of a lifetime? There’s going to be time to embed.

“World Rugby have said to us, it could take 12 weeks, it could take four months, 12 months, it could take three years to embed.

“But if it’s the right thing to do, based on recent evidence, to make the game safer, more enjoyable, more fun, we’ve got to do it, it’s important.

“If we can reduce the head on head collisions, reduce concussions and this is a method of doing it, it’s right for the game.”

Lower tackle laws have been in place in the French community game since 2017 and research on the trial has underpinned the change in directive by World Rugby.

“The six-year research [in France} shows that there’s less head on head collisions in the community game if you lower the tackle height, that means less concussions in the game,” said John.

“There’s been more participants playing the game, there were more tries, people were enjoying it, they had fun and it’s grown the game.

“We’ve had big support, in one of the webinars and 99% of people said yes to the changes we were doing.

“What are we doing is to make the game safer and hopefully grow it to make it safer in the future.”

Welsh Referee Ben Whitehouse, who will be part of the officiating team at the 2023 World Cup, says coaches and players will need to help officials to make the rule changes a “massive success”.

“We need a buy in, a buy in from everyone and a collaborative approach to all of this,” said Whitehouse.

“We can’t just go out as referees and penalise if the coaches and players don’t buy in, we want the coaches to educate the players, to coach the players and ultimately the referee department will do the same with the referees.

“It’s going to be tough for the first weeks in September because ultimately people don’t know exactly what it means for the game.

“It was the same when we brought in the high tackle framework, same when we started penalising tip tackles more firmly than we had before but ultimately it settles down over time.”

To those that say that ‘rugby’s gone soft’ Whitehouse asks doubters to give the news laws “time”.

“You look at some of the hits going in in the international game at the moment, they don’t need to be above the sternum to be a massive tackle,” said Whitehouse.

“Some of the biggest hits you’ll see in the professional game and in the community game are made in that sort of midriff area, the tummy area.

“We still want to see that, we still want to see dominant tackles and that will continue.”