Revert to old style or call time on the contest

THE Tomas Francis imbroglio, the alarming behaviour of the England U20s back-room staff in Italy, the endless medical bulletins over Tom Curry and Sam Underhill – the issues thrown up by concussion appear to be eternal, and we all know the problem with eternity. It never ends.

Neither does the rank stupidity of players who continue to hit high and then have the brass neck to look bemused when they are carded for making contact with an opponent’s head. What is so difficult, pray, about tackling around the legs rather than the windpipe? It was quite the fashion when yours truly was trundling round the mud heaps of the West Country in his black and white-hooped shirt.

The game has changed, you holler at the tops of your voices. Modern rugby is all about the offload, and if you can’t stop it, you’re dead in the water. Even worse, you’re out of work.

So we’re in a bind. World Rugby, the nongoverning body, has no clear idea of what it wants the game to look like and for all its player welfare initiatives, it seems powerless to address gross inconsistencies in return-to-play protocols and disciplinary processes as they are operated in different corners of the union landscape.

More worrying still, there is no appetite for an eradication of the so-called “jackal” technique at the tackle area. “Jackallers” are concussion cases in waiting. So too are the “guards”, who, in their stationary positions, are constantly at risk from low-flying “clearers-out”.

At the risk of repetition, this can be addressed either by a return to the old-style ruck, where everyone except the tackler and the tackled stay on their feet and keep their hands to themselves, or by calling time on contests for the loose ball. Do any of you have a preference?