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How ex-Springboks centre van Rensburg graduated from tackle school

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images for Sale Sharks)

One clash that went under the radar at Welford Road last Saturday was the sight of opposing midfielders – Rohan Janse van Rensburg of Sale and Dan Kelly of Leicester – going at it having just graduated from the tackle school that shaved a week off respective three-week bans they were given in early October. 

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If those suspensions were fully served, neither visiting outside centre van Rensburg nor home team inside centre Kelly would have been available to play as both would have been serving the final game of their Gallagher Premiership suspensions.  

Sale’s 27-year-old one-cap Springbok was banned for his red-carded tackle on October 3 on Exeter’s Harvey Skinner, while Leicester’s 20-year-old one-cap England centre was cited for striking Saracens’ Aled Davies the previous day. 

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Each player was suspended for three weeks but they applied to World Rugby for a coaching intervention and having satisfactorily completed this programme, they were excused the final week of their bans and were free to be selected to start in a match that the Tigers won 19-11. 

It’s a new World Rugby initiative that Sale boss Alex Sanderson believes is worthwhile and he detailed to RugbyPass the work that was involved in getting van Rensburg graduated from tackle school and able to retake his place in the Sharks line-up a week earlier than originally intended. 

“Tackle technique is something we work on all the time,” explained Sanderson. “In Rohan’s situation, it’s a really good thing because you have to go to an independent adjudicator, who is also a contact coach, and you can also get some tips on how to improve tackle technique. You can get a similar length of ban for hitting someone in the head recklessly or otherwise, but tackle school allows you some wriggle room with a rehabilitation programme to negate that black and white scenario that has been in place over the last few years.

“It is in place for the right reasons because everyone agreed that it [the high tackle law] was a little bit too stringent in some areas. Rohan could have got six weeks, pleaded guilty, gets three on the understanding that he could have kept his elbows tighter and that it wasn’t a real intent where he looked to take somebody’s head off. Then if he can improve that in a couple of weeks, which he can, then you should get two weeks as opposed to the three weeks for someone who is coming in with the swinging arm and with the intent to hurt. 

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“It’s good for getting the players back on the field and rehabilitating them. Because what are they going to do off the field? The alternative is to sit off the field, don’t play. It’s no good for the game, no good for them, they are not going to be better because they are not playing, they are not improving their skills because they are not playing and yet they have to suffer the punishment. It is a really positive thing I guess in all ways.

“Tackle school gets you extra focused on what they might improve upon, it gives extra impetus on them getting better as opposed to just serving the time which was happening in the past.”

So how does a player successful graduate from tackle school? “In Rohan’s case we have 15-minute sharpening sessions, some people call them extras at the end of every session, and those are down to the players and the coaches to decide what they are going to work on. 

“So with Rohan every day he was training he would do about 15 minutes of contact training or tackle technique at the end of it. What he does will be decided by the player and the coach in terms of improving his technique with third-party intervention advice. We videoed it all and sent it back to them for reference, ‘Is this what you think he should be doing?’

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“It is a collaborative understanding of our effort to improve his technique, so every day he was in he would so some with varying degrees of physicality every day for 15 minutes. That is about as good as you can get when it comes to tackle work.”

A lesson learned then by van Rensburg, the ex-Springboks Sale midfielder? “He was kind of embarrassed by it and wanted to make it right. He didn’t see the ball he wanted to see against Exeter and that probably lent to a bit of frustration… where you end up reaching for people so we talked a little bit about that as well. He was just frustrated he wasn’t putting the best of himself out there, really frustrated. He is a better player than what he was showing.”

 

 

   

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J
Jon 2 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 9 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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