World Rugby intends to lower the legal tackling height at elite level worldwide in the coming years to reduce the risk of head injuries in the sport, while the grassroots game in Wales is set to follow England's ban on tackling above the waist.
The move by the Rugby Football Union has been criticised by players and coaches for a lack of consultation and what it might mean for the future of the game, but World Rugby's chief executive Alan Gilpin has endorsed the move and said the sport's governing body would make similar changes in the coming years.
However, those changes at the elite game, which would see the sternum being the likely cut-off point for high tackles, are unlikely to be introduced immediately unlike the changes to the community game. The earliest we would see them could be the 2024-25 season and they may not even be in place until after the 2027 World Cup.
"Yes, we're looking to make sure that we are implementing a lower tackle height across all parts of the game," Gilpin told the Telegraph. "The RFU is in the process of implementing some changes around tackle height that we support.
"There's a lot of work to do to educate people. But we've got to, as a sport, try to find that really difficult but hugely-important balance between safety but making the game entertaining to watch.
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"We need to get players tackling lower at every part of the game ... How that's actually implemented is slightly different in the community game to the elite game.
“The key message is let’s get the tackle height lower at every level of the game because that will reduce – absolutely reduce – the number of head injuries that we see in rugby."
Gilpin also confirmed World Rugby was planning to stage a global law trial from January 1 next year, initially at amateur level, with a decision yet to be made over whether that would involve a prohibition on tackles above the waist or the sternum.
WalesOnline understand that the Scottish Rugby Union are likely to announce similar plans for tackling below the waist in the coming weeks, following the RFU's lead of getting plans in place ahead of World Rugby's global trial.
Welsh clubs that participate in Anglo-Welsh competitions, such as the three Welsh university sides competing in BUCS rugby, are not anticipating any issues of playing between differing laws, given the expectation that the Welsh Rugby Union will follow suit soon.
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