THE GAME HAS NOT GONE SOFT
Doc hits back at Leicester and says dangerous tackles must be punished
LEICESTER TIGERS’ claims that rugby has gone soft are ludicrous and damaging in the fight to help players avoid catastrophic injuries, according to the man whose research led to harsher sanctions on high tackles.
Will Spencer, the Tigers lock, was sent off on Sunday for tackling Wasps’ Tommy Taylor dangerously — striking the hooker’s head with his shoulder — and now faces disciplinary action.
He faces a disciplinary panel tonight and could be banned for six weeks if it is decided he did make contact with Taylor’s head.
Spencer’s sending-off outraged some current and former players. Leicester prop Ellis Genge said: ‘We might as well play touch rugby nowadays.’
And interim head coach Geordan Murphy called the decision ‘crazy’ and ‘bull****’.
Those reactions have angered World Rugby’s science and research consultant whose analysis of thousands of tackles brought about law changes in the game.
‘This kind of polarised, extreme interpretation is very unhelpful,’ dr Ross Tucker told Sportsmail.
‘These guys influence the prevailing attitudes, so it frustrates me. You think you’re making progress. These comments are big setbacks. Any Leicester player or coach will disagree that it was a red card because they believe it cost them the game.
‘They have a massive conflict of interest. It is like asking criminals to hand themselves in — they are not going to because it is profitable to be criminal. They need an external body to police them.
‘You look at how many players are retiring, and the injury rates. They have never been as high. And yet you are saying the game is getting soft because of one decision? I just wish they wouldn’t phrase it in such a way that it becomes such a political, socialmedia firebomb.’
In 2017 the game’s governing body brought in a directive to severely punish dangerous high tackles after dr Tucker’s team’s research showed those hits led to a huge increase in head injuries.
‘It is like parents, if you don’t punish your child harshly enough or often enough they will never learn discipline,’ said dr Tucker. ENGLAND’S women will turn fully professional in January. The RFU has awarded full-time contracts to 28 15-a-side players.