Beware unintended results of tinkering with the tackle laws

THE rule of unintended consequences has never been more apparent to me than the current obsession with trying to ‘manage’ the tackle collision.

The only feasible way World Rugby have proposed to improve player safety has been to provide new directives by changing the laws around the tackle.

Further calls for the tackle height to be lowered to the armpit have only worsened concussion cases in the recent Championship trial as the tackler is forced to make head to head tackles when the ball carrier runs low.

The number one law change which has modified the sport forever though, and in my opinion has had the complete reverse effect of what was intended, is the outlaw of the dump tackle.

In generations past the dump tackle was the number one way of imposing your will and psychologically impacting your opposite number. There was no better feeling for me as a player or a viewer.

When you saw Mike Tindall dump George Gregan in to touch in the World Cup final there was no physical damage but the psychological effects were huge.

Nowadays you have to make huge collisions to win the gain line battle as opposed to using momentum and technique to lift and drive a player backwards. As long as a player is not shifted beyond the horizontal and the tackler is in full control then this is a vital tackle for territorial and psychological superiority.

Collisions are now seismic and the gain line battle is a true war. So the rule which needs addressing is the ability of teams to fully empty the bench. The ability to rotate a 20+ stone prop for another on 60 mins is both dangerous and unnecessary.

No viewer wants to see rugby as we know it disintegrate. Bring back the dump tackle, tinker with the substitution rules rather than the Laws which made the sport great. PASCAL RELF via email