Rugby chief wants tougher line on tackles

Referees must show more red and yellow cards, says Gosper

Brett Gosper, the World Rugby chief executive, has demanded referees show more red and yellow cards to combat the dangerous tackles which have blighted the sport.

The number of reported concussions has risen in each of the past seven years, according to the latest Rugby Football Union data, with concussion accounting for 22 per cent of all match injuries in the 2016-17 season. This year, four top players have been forced to retire as a result of concussion: Ireland back Jared Payne; Dragons centre Adam Hughes; La Rochelle lock Jason Eaton and Leicester back-row Dominic Ryan.

The autumn internationals have been overshadowed by controversial challenges by high-profile players, including England co-captain Owen Farrell, South Africa captain Siya Kolisi, Australia’s Samu Kerevi and New Zealand’s Sam Whitelock. None were punished with a card.

With World Rugby having prioritised reducing head injuries, the failure by referees to take action was widely questioned.

Now Gosper has added his voice to the debate, insisting that not enough has been done to persuade players to lower the height of the tackle since the law was changed this year, and calling for referees to take tougher action on the field.

“The cards are there to change behaviour,” he explained. “They only continue to be a problem if behaviour does not change. The only way you can get player behaviour to change is to sanction with red cards and actually, we have probably not seen enough of it.

“I would say, in many ways, we have probably not been hard enough. There have probably not been as many yellow cards as we would like, and maybe not even as many red cards as we would like. We have not had the behaviour change that we are seeking yet, so we have to continue in that vein.

“The whole tackle law is to protect the ball carrier and the tackler, in fact, mostly the tackler, given that two-thirds of concussions occur to that player rather than the one carrying the ball.

“Dropping the height of the tackle is due to the statistics showing us that if the player is bent at the waist as they tackle, they are four times less likely to suffer a concussion. When you drop the height of the tackle, you are also less likely to concuss the ball carrier.”

Gosper added that World Rugby was fully aware that the new directives had not led to perfect results, given the confusion over some major incidents this month, such as Farrell’s tackle on Andre Esterhuizen in England’s victory over South Africa.

Farrell’s injury-time challenge – in which he hit Esterhuizen with his shoulder, with only a belated attempt to use his left arm – was analysed by referee Angus Gardner with the help of the television match official but he decided to take no action.

Since then, Kerevi’s late, high challenge on Leigh Halfpenny left the Wales full-back suffering concussion, which has ruled him out of Saturday’s game against South Africa. At the time, Wales attack coach Neil Jenkins branded the decision “unbelievable”.

Kolisi, meanwhile, was not even cited, despite aiming an apparent butt at Scotland’s Peter Horne, while Whitelock was criticised by pundits including Brian O’driscoll for hitting Cian Healy in a ruck during the All Blacks’ defeat in Dublin last Saturday.

“We recognise that there are inconsistencies, and over time that will sort itself out. We are working to rectify them. We cannot stand there with our hands up and say we get it right every time,” Gosper admitted. “Our job is to keep insisting on the objectives that we have for player-welfare reasons.

“After the first weekend of November, we had meetings with the referees and coaches to remind

‘There have not been as many yellow cards as we would like – maybe not even red cards’

them what we are looking for in this area to get that consistency everyone wants to see.”

Gosper ruled out the possibility of an orange card being introduced for high-tackle offences to avoid teams being reduced to 14 automatically.

Speaking at the launch of the logo for the France 2023 Rugby World Cup, Gosper provided a positive update on Japan’s preparations for next year’s tournament, suggesting it was “more advanced” than the England 2015 campaign at the same stage.

“We are now in good shape in Japan and have had some unexpected upsides – we were forecast a bit of a dip in our commercial revenues, given we are outside of our normal time zones and with sponsors maybe not going to the destinations they usually go to. But now we are thinking the revenues will even overtake those of England 2015.”

In addition, World Rugby confirmed last week that Fiji and Samoa would each receive a representative seat on the governing body’s council. The news follows a social media campaign run by Pacific Rugby Players Welfare, #Seatatthetable, with the organisation hoping the Pacific Island sides will now have a greater input.