MAYDAY! DON’T MOAN... TACKLE SMART
England star Jonny says players must stop complaining and adapt to new rules as they are there to prevent more injuries
ENGLAND star Jonny May says rugby players must get smarter and stop their moaning about the new tackle law.
May’s Leicester club-mate Will Spencer was red-carded for a shoulder-to-head hit at Wasps on Sunday, sparking a storm of protest from top stars.
Tigers boss Geordan Murphy described the decision as “crazy”, accusing rugby of becoming “too politically correct”.
May has sympathy for 6ft 7in Spencer, who appears before a disciplinary panel tonight, as “it didn’t really hurt anybody”.
But he added: “If this is the way the tackle is going to be refereed, we have to adapt and get smarter.
“There’s no point moaning about it. That won’t achieve anything.”
This is an important intervention in a debate which has divided opinion between those responsible for player welfare and those who argue rugby is going soft.
“You can’t question the lawmakers’ motives,” said May (below). “Everything being done is to protect people.
“It is frustrating for us on the pitch because the nature of rugby is that it’s a physical game and things happen in the spur of the moment.
“But if we can save one person from getting a nasty head injury by not tackling like that, or being a bit smarter with the way we tackle, then we’ve got to buy into it.”
May, who will be named in Eddie Jones’ autumn training squad on Thursday, points to the change in the way contesting the high ball has been accepted as evidence that players do adapt.
“It took boys maybe a little bit of time to get their heads around the way we now have to compete in the air,” he said. “But we’re definitely smarter there now.
“The big guys, the boys who back themselves to tackle up front and up high, and for whom that is part of their game, are going to have to be a little bit more smart with this too.”
World Rugby’s commitment to making the head a no-go area in tackles might leave England prop Kyle Sinckler wondering “are we playing football or rugby?” – but the governing body are, in effect, trying to protect players from themselves.
“World Rugby and the RFU are right to force down the height of tackles,” tweeted ex-England hooker Brian Moore. “Concussion and lawsuits are more likely to ruin the game than nonsense claims it’s going soft.”
The Rugby Football Union is to put England’s top 28 women players on full-time contracts to make them fully professional. “It is our ambition to be world No.1 and drive growth,” said RFU boss Steve Brown, who denied the move was in response to a threat of strike action.