'Addiction to tinkering': Two Premiership bosses on RFU tackle law
Two Gallagher Premiership directors of rugby – Sale boss Alex Sanderson and Rob Baxter of Exeter – have shared their thoughts on the controversial decision by the RFU to restrict rugby to waist-high tackles in the community game from the 2023/24 season onwards. The radical change will see aspiring professional players coming through academies having to play under a different tackle law at their developmental level than what will exist at Premiership or Championship level.
It will also mean the same adjustment is needed for professional players loaned out to National One clubs. Currently, Sale Sharks have a symbiotic relationship where their young recruits are involved with Sale FC, the grassroots club currently topping National One, while they are also associated with Caldy, the sixth-place team in the Championship.
Sale boss Sanderson predicts a faster game will emerge at the community level but fears the consequences will be an increase in the rate of concussions due to the lowering of the tackle height. “I don’t understand the process of what they set out to do,” he began when asked for his view on the debate that has consumed the game in England since last Thursday when it first emerged the RFU had voted to massively alter tackling at all levels below the top two professional leagues.
“I understand their intent, which is right, to minimise concussions and directly the head-on-head double concussions that you can get, that we saw a few of in the Sarries-Edinburgh game. But what we know, what I have been told is that 70 per cent of the concussions occur to the tacker, not the ball carrier. From my understanding, all you are doing is increasing the risk of that tackler getting more concussions because of where he is putting his head in around the hard bits of the ball carrier’s body.
“So I understand their intent, which is good and right and noble, and I understand what they are trying to get rid of but for me, doing such a drastic law change could yield more concussions than it can save and put the tackler in more harm. Notwithstanding the different coaching technique – you know you have got a 6ft 10 guy, like a 6ft 8 fella. Like, we could never get JP du Preez or Lood de Jager down to waist high. It was always belly-high-to-chest at best. So that brings its own technical differences.”
How does Sanderson think youngsters coming through the Sale pathway at community level would adjust to playing that game with a restricted tackle law compared to what would be permitted at professional level? “Yeah, there would be more offloads, the ball would move around a bit quicker because you can’t spend time in the tackle, particularly as they are being harsh about people being on the wrong side of the ball.
“The game would be faster, there would be more offloads but there would be more injuries. Essentially it’s the same game, it’s just the technique has changed. You shape and you evolve, there are law changes every year. Every year and the game continues. We’ll find a way.”
Long-serving Exeter boss Baxter came at the debate with a more holistic view, that he is tiring of the generally frequent law changes that are taking place in rugby, not just this latest tackle law alteration by the RFU for its community level game. The coach is a board member at the Chiefs who is active on the business side of the sport and he feels the constant tinkering with the laws is complicating the game and making it harder for fans to follow and play.
“It is one of the biggest challenges that rugby union has because what do we do, we are consistently tinkering and changing with laws,” he suggested. “I’m not just talking about tackle height, it’s something that is coming out non-stop around the ruck area, scrum, lineout, attack, defence.
“Do you lean more towards attack, more towards defence? Is it too easy to keep the ball? Is player X going off their feet, can player Y do it? We have got this addition to tinkering non-stop and it just makes it harder and harder for the game to be played… it is one of our biggest challenges if we want to grow the game.
“Football is what it is, but you can go down to the parks and you can play virtually the same game. I know you say you haven’t got VAR there but VAR is pretty recent in football. On the whole, you turn up and you get on with it. Rugby is getting a lot harder, harder and harder to do that and it is going to become harder and harder and harder to referee.
“There are going to be lots of challenges and we just need to be careful. We are a very knee-jerk, reactive type of sport. We need to have an effort to change being a reactive sport to help us grow the game.”
Comments on RugbyPass
anybody who bends at the waist when they tackle
3 Go to commentsThe evidence is not strong that this is necessary. Mounga choked on clutch kicks in the WRC final and lost the match by not performing his core goal kicking role to the level required. He also choked in the Semi final against England and was targeted as the weak point in the defence allowing them to score. Not a test great frankly. Why bend the rules for a player that is competent but not brilliant at test level?
11 Go to commentsDear Robbie, Please return to the Crusaders next season. Sincerely, Scott
1 Go to commentsDid the big E call the Irish the ‘White Can’ts’? That would’ve been good
30 Go to commentsDalton Papalii will be lucky to be selected on the Matchday 23. Ardie Savea, Ethan Blackadder, Luke Jacobson, and Peter Lauki are all as good or better openside flankers
9 Go to commentsScott Barrett is a lock and they have a much longer shelf life than a loose forward. Far more likely that Barrett will still demand a starting position based on performance at age 33 at RWC 2027 than Savea, whose explosive athleticism will have declined and he will in all likelihood have been surpassed by Hoskins Sotutu, Wallace Siti, Peter Lauki and Brayden Iose.
9 Go to commentsExtremely frustrating to get yet more speculation over whether or not Eben actually counted 12 players or not, but honestly big respect to McCloskey for keeping it classy and not pointing out Etzebeth’s hypocrisy. The Irish are a popular team outside of Ireland because they do their talking on the pitch, and its honestly a PR masterclass that they’re keeping it that way following Etzebeth’s provocation.
30 Go to commentsGood option for the lineout lost there.
1 Go to commentsIt’s not like Saffas have a long history of spouting absolute shite at any & every occasion. Oh wait… The dangers of an inferior third world education strike again.
30 Go to commentsI’m so glad we’re revisiting this. Really needs to be dissected further. I’m also so glad that a guy in the stands who wasn’t anywhere near the field when any of it would have been said (and even confirms this) has taken the lead and commented as Ireland. Definitely cleared it all up. This article would be hilarious if it wasn’t so misleading.
30 Go to commentsits such a shame he hasn’t achieved more success at club level. He’s really not been a potent finisher for a while now, but he’s still excellent in the kick chase. That’s the kind of skillset that generally only gets appreciated when you’re playing in premiership and european finals. I’m not sure whether the challenge cup counts given the quality of the competition seems lower than in previous years, but his duel with Mapimpi should be enthralling.
1 Go to commentsThe point is the irish players were arrogant,call it like you want sugar coat it aswell but they were you could see it in their way they handeled themselfs on the field when they got something right so dont tell me it was not arrogance it was,you can fool other people but not me,and to say to one of our players see you in the final put a nail in the coffin for this bullsh@t,just be grown men and accept it that you were arrogant,you could if seen it from a mile away, and then you lost to the allblacks what a cocky move that didnt work out for you ,Eben was right when he said u were arrogant,the point is you will deny it because you lost it all just grow some balls and move on we had won you lost accept it.
30 Go to comments“summer tour of North and South America” so its a summer tour of america?
1 Go to commentsEverybody is giving the Irish players the benefit of the doubt in ‘what they meant’, but none of these pundits or commentators offer the same courtesy to Eben. I don’t think Eben went, 1, 2, 3… etc. What might have happened is he didn’t count and when the 3rd or 5th guy said he went, hang on why are so many of them saying this… and then started to concentrate on it more and more as players continue to say it. So no, he didn’t count it, he realised many Irish players said it and made an assumption based on that… The Irish team was VERY confident at the time and I do believe they believed they were going to win the World Cup, which borders a bit on the arrogant side…
30 Go to commentsI can see how some of the Irish players would have said”see you in the final” as a gentle comment after a victory. It’s open to interpretation but it’s clumsy language. I don’t know the fella but I assure you Eben doesn’t have an axe to grind with Ireland. He has never been the media seeking pro. Oh and BTW it is I’ll be our winter in July so won’t be wet.
30 Go to comments*McCloskey*: _I saw this clip. Like, I wasn’t playing that game; I was in the stands…so you don't know sh!t in other words, infact you know just as much as Goode on this matter. I will believe the guy who was on the pitch when things were said as appose to two people speculating over what was said._
30 Go to comments@ turlough dream on buddy. Your boys are in for one tough time down in sa this summer…
30 Go to commentsI think Goode is looking to establish a platform for himself. Eben said “Probably” so that suggests he wasn’t counting. It’s an estimate Goode. I think even with your short and uneventful experience with the Sharks you probably realise winding up Saffas will get you some airtime. It’s a none event. Move on
30 Go to commentsRugby has never been as structured and synthetically pleasing as it is at this moment. The game is simply beautiful and messing with it too much will ruin it for everyone. I can't help but feel that over the past decade or so many rules have been changed to accommodate a certain hemisphere and counter another. Perhaps I am wrong but I somehow don’t think so.
2 Go to commentsNoted some excellent defensive steals from the Rebs last week against the Reds, largely J Canham, I think. It’s not a Rolls Royce but they are a real threat with their defensive line out at the beginning matches. What do you make of Canham Nick, WBs squad material?
86 Go to comments