What is this new law change?
To call it a law change is the first disingenuous step from World Rugby. This is actually a ramping up of punishment for an existing offence. The threshold for a high tackle remains the line of the shoulders. World Rugby has instituted two new categories for a high tackle – “reckless” and “accidental” – together with rhetoric that tries to define each. But a high tackle remains a high tackle, and both the reckless and accidental manifestations have long been penalised.
What has changed then?
Mainly the severity of the punishment for reckless tackles, whose minimum sanction is a yellow card and maximum a red, fortified with increases in the accompanying bans. The “accidental tackle” (was there ever a more ridiculous phrase?) has a minimum sanction of a penalty and, tellingly, no maximum. To advise red cards for accidents would be a step too far, even for World Rugby, but you can be sure referees will feel pressure to award them.
But World Rugby have been preaching zero tolerance on this for a while, haven’t they?
Yes.
So, it’s not really a change at all?
You’ve got a point there. The game is already creaking under the weight of red and yellow cards. This is just the institution into the law book of the several directives World Rugby has issued recently on the question of high tackles, the latest in November. Hopefully, there will be little further effect when it all kicks off this weekend. Realistically, though, the scrutiny on players and referees will be more intense than ever.
Surely it will also mean a lowering of the target area for the tackler?
That is true. And if we had a stronger governing body it would institute the law directly by lowering the threshold for a high tackle to somewhere safe on the body, such as below chest height, not leave it up to the players and coaches to work that out for themselves in the middle of a season.
