Former England star Kevin Brown has urged rugby league not to rush to follow rugby union’s law change which he claims is “ludicrous and dangerous.”
The RFU has announced players in the community game will only be allowed to tackle from waist height down from July 1. They say they have scientific evidence to show it will improve player safety and reduce the risk of concussions. But the drastic decision has caused uproar from many in the 15-aside code who claim it will make the sport unrecognisable.
There are fears rugby league could move the same way but ex-Wigan and Warrington stand-off Brown hopes otherwise and argues such a change could cause MORE concussions. He said: “I’m glad it’s not happening in rugby league. I am worried that we will follow. But I hope rugby league isn’t rash and just holds its nerve a little to see what happens in union as I do think it’ll be a disaster for them.
"It will kill their game at community level. I think it’s dangerous. The defender will end up being the player getting knocked out. I’m against it. And I’ve been concussed plenty of times. You’re just going to put kids’ heads in the way of other kids’ knees.
“I’ve played rugby for a long time - in the forwards and the backs - and in both positions tackling should be scenario-based. You should have the option to keep yourself safe. You shouldn’t be told you have to put your head near someone’s knee. That for me is ludicrous.”
Brown, who played more than 400 games including the 2017 World Cup final, says there’s going to be obvious mismatches. The 38-year-old gives the example of what it was like facing Wakefield Trinity’s giant Tonga prop David Fifita. He recalled; “At clubs, we used to have rules that you couldn’t go low on certain opponents for self-preservation reasons. If you went low on David Fifita, you were either getting an elbow or a knee in the face and getting knocked out. And you weren’t stopping him.
“The lads with big legs and strong bases, you had to go higher than the waist. You can’t always go low and the problem is that the people being knocked out will start to be the defender.”
Brown, who now works as a player agent and BBC pundit, coaches Orrell St James Under 11s and fears for children who will have to now adapt in union. He said: “I’d be worried about what they are doing with their necks. We do a lot of tackle technique and the most common thing is for them to get their heads in the wrong way.
“They don’t have that when they’re tackling higher. They might get bumped off but I’ve been coaching kids up to Under 11s and before that on scholarship at Widnes and Warrington and I’ve never really seen many lads getting concussed by tackling at that age.”
And he believes rugby league has already vastly improved its player safety. Brown said: “A lot of my concussions were from being hit late as a ball player but rugby league’s now helped rule those out with the changes they’ve made. But if this rule came into league, I wouldn’t want to be telling the kids in my team to do that - tackling down around the knees - and then telling the parents ‘this is safe.’
“Kids will be left thinking ‘I don’t want to go low here but I have to’ where normally the safe tackle would be around the stomach or ball. It isn't dangerous at the moment but we’re going to make it dangerous if we follow what union’s doing. Hopefully we won’t.”
