The Rugby Football League is ready to pause the controversial changes to tackle height in the professional game planned for 2025 which would have reduced the legal height to below the armpit, after data showed a reduction in head contact of 75% in Super League this year.
Rugby league has already approved the changes at amateur and academy level, with the intention to replicate the ruling at professional level next year after recommendations from the sport’s brain health committee, which is aimed at reducing the number of concussions suffered by players. However, that change could now be halted, the Guardian has been told.
Clubs were presented with data at a meeting on Wednesday which showed there have been 75% fewer incidents involving head contact in Super League matches this year compared with the RFL’s historical data. The sport introduced stricter sanctioning for contact with the head at the start of this year, which led to a number of suspensions and controversial red cards.
But the governing body says those punishments have now facilitated a change in player behaviour which may lead to the lowering of the tackle height being stopped. If the number remains constant for the rest of the season, the RFL will recommend to the brain health committee in September that the rules remain as they are, with the legal tackle height being below the neck.
“It’s down 75% on our historic data which is very good but we shouldn’t rest on that,” the RFL’s Robert Hicks told the Guardian. He says the introduction of instrumented mouthguards which track players’ risk of a concussion has been vital. We’ve been able to show that the safest place to tackle is armpit to waist: that is the reality of what the data shows.
“We believe we’ve got an opportunity to keep coach-led interventions rather than law-change interventions. The next few months will determine whether we can do that. We would like to pause implementing the change to tackle height in the professional game, while we assess the data we get from academy rugby about what effect that change has had on concussive events.”
However, Hicks insisted the game is not deviating away from its long-term plan to protect players. “The brain health committee has the objective to reduce concussive events by 25% over five years – and they’ll assess where we are against our objectives and hopefully say yes, we’ve made a difference.”
If the committee agrees, the suspension of the change would probably then be confirmed at an RFL board meeting in October.
