Referees are right to be strict over high tackles and the players must adjust

Mick Cleary, the Daily Telegraph’s respected rugby correspondent, suggested this week that referees are being too strict in their policing of high tackles. They’ll have to adjust their ways, he said, if we aren’t to end up with 11-a side. One obvious answer is of course that it’s the players who should be adjusting their ways. Still, as with any worthwhile argument, there are two sides to the question.

The classic low tackle round the hips or knees is rarer than it used to be. I’d be surprised if ten per cent of tackles in pro rugby conform to the old standard. This isn’t because modern players can’t tackle low. It’s because the game is played differently. Players now carry the ball hard close to the breakdown or the tail of the lineout and run straight at the defensive line. The tackler has to make a head-on tackle, and, in order to check momentum, will go in chesthigh, aiming to knock the ball-carrier back.

Two other developments often make the classic low tackle less profitable than it used to be. All players – even prop forwards – are now schooled in the art of off-loading out of the tackle. A low tackle doesn’t prevent the offload; a chest-high one may. Then, the law change more than 20 years ago to permit the tackled player to pass the ball after he has been brought to ground also devalues the low tackle and makes a high, smothering one more effective.

On the other hand, high tackles are more dangerous. We are far more aware of the possible consequences of head injuries than we used to be, and this is why the lawmakers have required referees to clamp down on high, potentially dangerous tackles. This is surely in both the immediate interest of players now and the long-term interest of the game. Rugby is a hard physical sport and there will always be injuries – just as there always have been – but a lax anything-goes interpretation of the tackle law would undoubtedly have more parents deciding that their children shouldn’t play rugby.

So the argument goes against Mr Cleary. Referees are right to be strict and players have to learn how to adjust and improve their tackling technique. We may need further law changes to get the balance between attack and defence right.

Meanwhile, both Edinburgh and Glasgow made excellent starts to the league season with victories in Cardiff and Galway respectively. There is reason to be optimistic about Edinburgh this year, not only because of any influence their new head coach, Richard Cockerill, may have, but also because a number

“If Price continues to make the same improvement as he has over the last 12 months, I reckon there won’t be a better no 9 in the Northern Hemisphere”