Lawes of the Tackle

Having seen the whack Leigh Halfpenny was on the end of last week - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_-tWmucr4k , I'm starting to think the arms wrap around the tackle rule is a bit pointless. When you look at the replay, the tackle is perfect in the eyes of the law, but you can see Halfpenny's injury stems from the weight of the tackler falling on him, because he wrapped his arms around really well. When you think about it, an illegal shoulder charge tackle might wind you, but once players become adept at the 'legal' arms wrap around tackles, they will be pile driving players into the ground and falling on the player with all their weight. Dislocated shoulders and the likes could be the result when big fellas target smaller players.

We have all seen big hits, including those which it would be fairly impossible to wrap arms around because of the speed the tackled falls, being penalised recently. I'd like to see an end to this, its a bit of a mess of a rule in my opinion, and it looks like a big hit is going to hurt you regardless of the arms of the tackler.

Terrible play from Toulon 7 which effectively led to the injury. No problem with the tackle as far as i'm concerned.

Perfectly legal tackle, but it highlights how any big hit can cause an injury. If you wrap your arms around and are a big fella, you'll drive the player into the ground, sometimes awkwardly. I reckon the tackle rule requiring you to wrap your arms should be scrapped. I'm not convinced its any safer, it confuses players and leads to unnecessary penalties/cards.

There was me thinking this was another whine about Courtney Lawes.

Quite the opposite, and who am I to turn my nose up at such a pun. Players like him are having to scale back their physicality and hope they hit with slow enough contact to wrap in the tackle. Even with the best intentions the rule is difficult to follow.

I am not sure no arm tackles would be much safer myself, they can cause whiplash. I watch a bit of RL and see some awful hits where players are knocked out immediately when hit with a shoulder charge and fall in bad ways that cause injuries. At least when a player wraps his arms, in big hits, there is still some element of control.

Do they cause whiplash often Nachos? Wouldn't watch too much league myself so can't really comment. What I would say is legal tackles could potentially cause it too, like Lawes' cracker against France.

I was in Australia a few years back where they were concerned about the amount of whiplash caused in no armed tackles. I cant remember rightly but there is an Australian moderator on here (the loaded dog I think he is called) who would know better than me or even if I am totally incorrect.

I get more concerned about tackles that are made on players catching a kick. Being cut down by a player running full pelt as a jumper lands is a very big concern of mine.

Allowing for shoulder charges in Union will never be introduced IMO. Having played League for a couple of seasons coming from a Union background I was really looking forward to having a go at the no arms tackle.
In truth it's a very difficult skill to master. It's only effective when on the attacking players blindside and is very easy to mistime leading to complete fresh air no hits or dangerous shoulder to head and head on head clashes.
The idea of wrapping the arms in union is to bring the opponent to the ground in a controlled manner. Yes it can cause injury but even the biggest legal tackles usually just result in bruised pride. No arm tackles in union would have the same risks as league but given the hectic nature of open play in union there seems to me to be many more opportunities to tackle a player on his blind side.
It saddens me to say it but I think the result of the whiplash type injuries in the long term will see a game played only by the biggest physical specimens. Lawes style has shown that technically gifted tacklers of his size WILL cause damage to smaller guys through perfectly legal tackles. I think this trend will only continue and instead of watering down the tackle it will just remove the smaller players from the game.

So divide the Sport yet again. And have a Game designed for bigger and bigger and bigger men and watch to see how big men can get without going 'illegal'  Because the truth is that if all players become big to counteract the sheer physicality they are meeting, then the physicality itself again becomes relative unless a few more even bigger guys show up to make bigger hits.

OR................... make the game even more like boxing and control the size(weight) of all players on the field - have demarcated limits for forwards and backs  The excitement would be to see do the players make their weight for the week and if they didn't they'd have to be replaced by a less heavy alternative.

All teams would have to turn up with the same weight per team (on the button - no excuses) After all, if smaller players are to be banned because they'd get hurt, then why not ban bigger players because of their potential TO hurt.  Why should the "Sorry, your days playing rugby are over" be directed at the smaller players only?

Wait a minute. Isn’t speed as big a contributing factor to the impact in a tackle as weight? If I remember my sums from skool the Mass X Speed = something, something squared. Though what a religious ceremony has to do with any of it is beyond me.
So do we also limit players speed? How would that work? Is there an equivalent in any other sport? Perhaps we could slow them down by maybe adding some lead weight to their kit.
So that’s the answer. To reduce the impact of the tackle we make all players heavier.

That sounds about right Sub. We've reached the right conclusion - safer rugby means heavier rugby.

Lead weights added to belts sequentially so that all players reach 'slow-down' protocols equally

That's one heavy belt of Lead Shane Williams would have been forced to wear to slow him down enough! I'm sure he's glad he retired before we introduced the ruling.

If the extra weight became prohibitive an alternative method of slowing players could be considered. Fibres glass socks, vicks vapo rub in the jock strap and electrified touch lines would all have the desired effect.
Unfortunately, I think it could possibly impinge on several patents of Japanese gameshow formats.

By the way, could we rush in these new laws quickly before the Toulon game???!!!