Let refs decide if tackles are malicious

THE idea that you can sanitise a fast physical contact sport like Rugby Union to the extent that you can totally eradicate head knocks is plain daft. However, the idea that players should be protected from malicious or reckless blows to the head is not in any way daft, it is essential. Unfortunately, by advising referees before this World Cup that any contact at all with the head by a tackler should be sanctioned with a yellow or red card, the World Rugby lawmakers have made a rod for their own backs, as well as that of match officials.

While safety guidelines are important what is also important is a sense of proportion – and that involves the recognition that each head contact incident is different, and should be judged by referees on the evidence in front of them.

Kiwi referee Ben O’Keeffe got it wrong by not giving Australia wing Reece Hodge a yellow card for a nonmalicious high charge which left Fijian flanker Peceli Yato concussed – but the sanction is there if the refereeing assessors do their job by dropping him down the pecking order if they feel his judgement was faulty. The same applies to Romain Poite who should have given Samoa’s Rey Lee-Lo a red card, rather than yellow, for a reckless high tackle which struck the head of Russian captain Vasily Artemyev. Another Kiwi referee, Paul Williams, got it right when he ruled that there should be no sanction when Tonga’s Sione Kalamafoni slammed into Anthony Watson’s neck/head as the England wing lost his footing and went to his knees the split second before the tackle, because it was accidental. The best way forward is for World Rugby to tell referees to rule so that the punishment fits the crime, not to tell them that any contact with the head deserves a card.