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WORLD Rugby has been asked to consider reducing the legal height for a tackle after a seventh successive season of increased incidents of concussion in the English professional game.

The Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project, jointly commissioned by the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby, with the support of the Rugby Players’ Association, reported injury data for the 2016-17 season on Monday.

The report showed concussion was the most commonly reported match injury for a seventh straight year, contributing 22 per cent to the total.

And it suggested a World Rugby directive – to increase sanctions on tackles and take a zero tolerance approach to contact with the head, introduced in January 2017 – made “no difference” to the incidence of all injuries and concussion.

RFU medical services director Dr Simon Kemp said World Rugby was making its own analysis of data to consider a reduction in the legal height of a tackle which, RFU professional rugby director Nigel Melville said, has “become a bit of a grey area”.

Kemp said: “We would like World Rugby to give consideration to thinking about reducing the legal height for the tackle.

“There’s very little margins for error with the permitted height of the tackle at the line of the shoulders.

“It’s for World Rugby to consider and we know they’re doing that at the moment.”

Melville added: “It’s become a bit of a grey area at times.

“What we’re looking for is consistency across the refereeing.

“It’s challenging for World Rugby, with referees coming from different hemispheres, from different competitions and you get a lack of consistency.

“That’s difficult for fans and people watching to know what’s right and what’s wrong.”

The report, in its 14th season and delivered by researchers at the University of Bath, showed concussion cases requiring more than a three-month absence had increased in number.

That was attributed to “a trend to more conservative management of players who have sustained two or more concussions in a 12-month period”.

For the first time, hamstring injuries and concussion appear alongside anterior cruciate ligament knee injuries in the top three match injuries resulting in an absence of 84 days or more.

For the 2016-17 Premiership season, there were 3.8 injuries per match (1.9 per team), on average.

Of the 169 concussions reported, 22 players suffered more than one concussion. AFTER the smoked salmon and prawn sandwich filler diet that is the Six Nations Championship, it’s back to the bread and butter existence of the domestic league game in Wales and England as the Guinness PRO14 and Aviva Premiership regained centre stage with the TV companies.

But as a glut of stellar Six Nations names made a return to the club and regional scene, there was no shortage of Welsh rugby winners and losers to pick from.

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