Tackling below the waist won’t end the injury risks
AS a player I only remember getting KO’d once. It happened in a Bath second team game against Cardiff seconds when I was trying to score a try in the corner. All I can remember is a feeling the body tensing, and then looking up, which was basically me coming round. I was out for nano-seconds before being taken off. I do not remember much more about it, but I must have shown signs of being knocked out otherwise I wouldn’t have been taken off.
Overall, I cannot recall a huge amount about the matches I played. Most of the memories are pretty vague. This is not surprising given the number of games – I played over 260 matches for Bath, 65 for England, and eight Tests for the Lions – and the fact that it is 35 years since I started my adult playing career.
What I can tell you is that the incident did not keep me out for long. I can remember not being able to play because of injuries, so if it kept me out for any time I would recall it – and of course back then there were no concussion protocols or HIA’s.
It wasn’t really a thing at that time, and I don’t remember too much serial concussion among any of my teammates. Sure, having played from the age of eight until 35, I’ve seen plenty of guys wobbly on their feet, but I could not say for sure whether they were concussed. Most of the worst cases, when players could not carry on, saw them carried off.
First and foremost, if former players have been diagnosed with early onset dementia there is a serious issue for Rugby Union. I feel very fortunate to have played a game I loved and enjoyed hugely, retired and continued life relatively injury free. It raises all sorts of questions and it was interesting to read Lewis Moody’s thoughts on the subject as a player who had a number of concussions.
Moody said that he might not be the best example because he never wanted to leave the pitch, and added that he did not believe there had been any neglect by medical professionals during his time as a player, because they had the best interests of players at heart.
However, the game has questions to answer. It sounds as if there will be a court case, and there will be the speculation about the outcome, but even when a judgement is made, you will still probably have an appeals process, so those answers are unlikely to be immediate.
It is possible what happened in American Football, with the NFL having to make massive compensation payments for those suffering concussion complications, could happen in rugby – but obviously measures have been put in place in this sport in recent years to limit the dangers.
That should not stop the game taking a good look at itself, and there are two areas in particular in the elite level, professional game which I would like to highlight.
The first is tackle technique. Tackling is very much part of the character of the game, and to me the idea of introducing rules that say tackling can only be done one-onone, or below the waist, changes it completely. That is not rugby. If you’re running with the ball, one of your aims is to avoid tacklers, but the reality is that when you’re carrying you might run into two or three people, and if two of them try to tackle you at the same time, you cannot legislate against that.
So, it’s about how far in sport we go to make it safe, and whether what we are left with is recognisable as the sport we knew. Mike Atherton wrote recently in his cricket column about the campaign in Australia to get rid of the bouncer. In his view a large part of the argument is about batting technique. Atherton said that if you get it wrong a bouncer can hit you on the head, which can be dangerous, so why not teach better technique rather than ban it?
Maybe we can learn from cricket when it comes to considering how much we change the rules in Rugby Union. The simple fact is that you cannot eradicate concussion unless you have no contact (even then you could trip and fall and bang your head) – and then you have no game.
In my view, the tackle should remain where it is and refereed strictly as it is below the shoulder, no doubt about it, but below the waist is going too far – and this is particularly the case because the evidence is that concussion is happening more to the tackler than to the tackled player. This suggests that it is about improving tackling technique, and making sure that the head, in particular, of the tackler is in the right place.
Technique is huge, and I believe it is possible to make the necessary improvements. You see at the highest level of the game that players often do not get their heads behind the tackled player, but instead put it in harm’s way by getting it in front, so that they catch a knee or hip.
This is because many players favour their stronger side, right or left shoulder/arm when they tackle, which mean if they make what should be a left sided shoulder/arm tackle with their stronger right shoulder/arm, their heads are in the wrong position – and they are in danger of being concussed.
It is also important to recognise that tackling below the waist will not put an end to concussions. If you go low you are still run the risk of getting concussed if you do not use the right technique.
We have to do as much as we can without changing the whole face of the game. Tag rugby is not elite rugby but it’s a good way to get young people interested in Rugby Union.
The second area that has to change is substitutes. I have talked about this in a number of previous columns. One of the aims of increasing the number of substitutes was to make game safer – but it has had the opposite effect.
If you can bring on blokes as subs who are 6ft 6ins, muscular, run fast, and are raring to go because they have only been on for two minutes against opposing forwards who have played from the start, then there’s a mismatch in fatigue and intensity.
Better technique will lead to safer tackling, and fewer substitutes will mean less phases and less contact – and with fatigue becoming a factor again it will lessen the intensity of collisions the further the game goes into its 80 minutes of play.
During my international career with England we knew that if we could raise our intensity against most teams in the second half that they would be blown away. In the same way, the New Zealand sides of that era were fitter than most of their opponents, and you felt their intensity rise just as you were tiring.
Rugby Union needs to do the same by holding on to all that it is, while at the same time continue improving the safety of players by protecting them against concussion – with good tackle technique and a reduction in substitutes the top priorities.
“Concussion is happening more to the tackler than to the tackled player”