The World Rugby U20 Championships started on Wednesday in the South of France. Just before it started, World Rugby announced a programme of dedicated law trials for the tournament aimed at reducing the risk of head injury by changing player behaviour in the tackle. The U20 Trophy will also include the new trials when that is played.
World Rugby, and it’s constituent Unions, are all committed to an evidence-based approach to injury-prevention. The latest comprehensive research shows clearly that tacklers who are upright, carry the greatest risk of head-injury. Therefore, the trials are designed to change player behaviour by getting the tackler to attempt lower tackles and therefore lower the risk of injury.
As a result, the acceptable height of the tackle will be lowered through revised on-field and off-field sanctions, encouraging players to bend at the waist when attempting a tackle.
These trials are based on unprecedented research from more than 1,500 elite matches conducted by World Rugby, which confirmed:
- 76 per cent of head injuries occur in the tackle
- 72 per cent of head injuries in the tackle occur to the tackler
- The risk of injury to both players from a high-contact tackle (when the tackler is upright) is 4.3 times greater than a low-contact tackle
- Head-on-head contact (when the tackler is upright) is 6.5 times more likely to result in a head injury than the lower head-to-hip tackle
World Rugby will trial two approaches – one off the field using the citing commissioner to issue warnings (U20 Championships), and one on the field seeing law, and therefore, refereeing changes (U20 Trophy).
A strong education element will be run in parallel, explaining that this player welfare initiative protects the tackler and their opponents
U20 Championship – Off-field trial
During this tournament in France (30 May – June 17), a High Tackle Warning will be issued by the Citing Commissioner, after the match, if:
- the tackler is upright (i.e. not bent at the waist when tackling), and
- there is clear and obvious head contact for either player.
Each High Tackle Warning carries ‘one strike’.When ‘two strikes’ have been issued, a player will receive a one-match suspension (a right to appeal will operate). These warnings also form part of the usual accumulation of sanctions, including Citing Commissioner Warnings (CCWs) and yellow cards.
A tackler will be deemed to be upright when:
- They are in an approximate upright standing position
- They have made no clear attempt to lower the height of contact with the ball carrier to avoid the head or shoulders of the ball carrier
- There is no knee flexion and minimal bending at the waist which brings the head into a dangerous position for collision with ball carrier’s head or shoulder
The high tackle warning will be issued in one of four types of incidents:
- All high-contact penalties, irrespective of sanction, during matches
- All tackles that result in an HIA, irrespective of whether to tackler or ball-carrier
- High tackles that are missed during the match
- Accidental clear and obvious head-to-head and head-to-shoulder contact
The high tackle warning trial does not change the law in any way, and the referees on-field decisions and sanctions for high tackles will remain in place, as directed by the high tackle directives of 2017.
U20 Trophy – On-field law change
At the U20 Trophy when that is played, an amendment to Law 9.13 will operate, altering the definition of a high tackle from above the line of the shoulders to above the nipple line.
For the duration of the tournament, Law 9.13 will read:
“A player must not tackle an opponent early, late or dangerously. Dangerous tackling includes, but is not limited to, tackling or attempting to tackle an opponent above the nipple line even if the tackle starts below the nipple line.”
World Rugby will carry out a detailed analysis of each trial compared to data from the current global environment and previous World Rugby age-grade tournaments will enable the governing body to inform a possible game-wide approach to this priority area.
World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont said, “As a rugby father with sons playing at the elite and community level, I am committed to ensuring that rugby remains at the forefront of injury-prevention, specifically in the priority area of concussion.
“As a sport, we have collectively made excellent progress in the programmes and initiatives that have been implemented and they are benefiting players at all levels. This trial builds on the success of lowering of the acceptable tackle height and furthers rugby’s commitment to ensuring that high-risk tackles, identified through unprecedented research, are eradicated from the game, by removing contact between the tackler’s head and the head of their opponent.”
World Rugby Chief Medical Officer Dr Martin Raftery added, “By robust examination of our research, we are able to employ an evidence-based approach to injury-prevention. The data is compelling and clearly demonstrates that high-contact tackles carry a significantly greater risk (over four times the risk) of injury than lower-contact tackles and this applies to both the tackler who is at greatest risk and the ball carrier. This trial is designed to remove the tackler’s head from a high-risk situation through a deterrent based on a combination of law amendment, sanction and technique change.”
A video explaining the theory behind this can be found at https://www.worldrugby.org/video/336326
RugbyReferee.net opinion:
It will be interesting to watch how player behaviour changes as the tournament progresses. What’s key to remember here is that there needs to be both a collision tackle AND a head contact to either ball carrier or tackler. Is this a sign of things to come in the future? Probably – concussion mitigation and player safety will drive these changes, or at least give them a higher focus. There will be a concern that this will lead to a sanitizing of rugby, but we hope that won’t be the outcome. We’ll see. But whether it’s on the cards or not, it won’t happen on a wider scale before RWC 2019. So unless you’re refereeing at either of these two tournaments, referee as you always did, using the 2017 high tackle guidelines.
