How Not To Use Your Tackle

Last week’s Hit of the Week videos caused some dispute on a what is becoming an increasingly common issue in rugby: what constitutes a dangerous tackle? It’s a fair question: where does one draw the line and how easy is it for the ref to make these close calls in real-time? RT looks at some examples of dangerous play in the tackle.

The high tackle:

Covered by Law 10.4(e): ”A player must not tackle (or try to tackle) an opponent above the line of the shoulders even if the tackle starts below the line of the shoulders. A tackle around the opponent’s neck or head is dangerous play”.

The professionals are often guilty of these – check out this head hunter by Xavier Rush on Courtney Lawes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfVfR4mh3DQ&feature=related

......And this one by Michael Hobbs of the Blues on the Crusaders' Ryan Crotty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjve4nxaWnA

The spear tackle:

The IRB actually explain the law like this:

”Lifting a player from the ground and dropping or driving that player into the ground whilst that player's feet are still off the ground such that the player's head and/or upper body come into contact with the ground is dangerous play”. (Law 10.4(j))

Have a look at this video of Welsh wing Aled Brew up-ending Canadian back DTH Van Der Merwe (from 1:13 onwards):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZozgcQ2tUA

Particularly from the camera angle behind Brew, this seems to be one of the more open and shut cases of a spear tackle: Brew clearly lifts Van Der Merwe, tilts him past the horizontal plane and then actually drives him downwards in that position.

Now compare that with one of last week’s highlighted hits from Jyväskylä vs Helsinki:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUAe9Snx_3c

Does that hit fall under the foul play law? In the strictest interpretation of the law, perhaps it does.

Non-use of arms/shoulder charge:

IRB laws state that ‘a player must not charge or knock down an opponent carrying the ball without trying to grasp that player’.

The dangers of shoulder charging were seen in Super Rugby this year, including this example from the Sharks v Chiefs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVC0LvMsfJQ

For another example, have a look at the second half of this clip (from 0:22 onwards), where All Black wing Rene Ranger makes no effort to use his arms in knocking down a Bok:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1lY2miD3cg

 

The stiff arm/swinging arm:

“A ‘stiff-arm tackle’ is dangerous play. A player makes a stiff-arm tackle when using a stiff-arm to strike an opponent”.

A classic example of this careless type of tackling was captured by photographer Rod McCracken during the Finland v Bulgaria game this year in Turku:

For a more recent example in Finnish rugby, you can download the recent game between Helsinki RC and Warriors RC from www.rugby.fi - check out 21:29 for a questionable use of an arm in the tackle.

For further information and video examples of ther IRB laws on dangerous tackling, have a look at their website and scroll down to dangerous tackling from this link:

http://www.irblaws.com/EN/laws/3/10/95/during-the-match/foul-play/dangerous-play-and-misconduct/#clause_95