Are they really trying to force players to tackle lower?

If so… why are they only penalising upright tackles in cases where there is head contact?

The inadvertent message currently is ‘you can still tackle upright - we don’t have a problem with it, unless you make contact with the head’.

Is it time to start penalising all tackles above the sternum?

I’ve always said, if you tackle upright, it’s a lottery whether you make head contact.

Or not even giving a penalty even when there is head contact as just happened in Sale v Ulster?

Funny, the Ulster incident happened straight after I made this post.

I probably would have accepted it if Warwick was carded. But there’s a difference between a chest up tackle and a head down tackle I think.

Perhaps I’m at risk of hypocrisy already!
But Warwick was crouching at least a bit, and his head was down. Tuilagi’s face made contact with the top of Warwick’s balding head.

Perhaps though, by my own standards, that shouldn’t matter.
Still not low enough??

I have to admit I'm struggling to understand what's OK and what isn't these days - there is just so much inconsistency ... generally it seemed to me lately pretty much any head on head contact no matter what the circumstances has been ending up in a card or at the very minimum a pen, but obviously not for French refs ...

Well that is kinda my point Heaf. It has seemed to me that the only defining detail dictating cards of late has been the head contact, and yet all the discussion around it is about tackling upright.

Which is it? Do we have a problem with head contact, or do we have a problem with upright tackles?

We see cards given for head contact in ruck clear outs too and those definitely aren’t upright tackles.

So yea, the Warwick incident in the Ulster game is puzzling. He did crouch a bit. But so are all the players who get carded for head contact in ruck clear outs.

It’s as clear as mud.

Yep agreed ... I'm pretty sure in the prem that would have been red as a start point due to the head contact and wouldn't have been mitigated down to yellow as Manu didn't change his height at the last minute which is what they tend to look for ... possibly they may have said the tackler was passive but it still would only have dropped it to yellow I suspect.

A ref in another match yesterday was heard to say "it may be like that in the premiership but it's different in Europe" when challenged about a scrum decision - so that says it all - surely everyone should be operating under the same law interpretations?

There was a trial where the high tackle line was redrawn at the arm pit, during the trial the number of concussions increased.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2019/01/24/rfu-halt-tackle-height-trial-rise-concussion-rate-championship/