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Retro Peter Stringer tackle on Jonah Lomu goes viral after high tackle debate

By Josh Raisey
Little Peter Stringer gets bumped by Ma'a Nonu in 2006, but he had success in 2002 against Jonah Lomu, Nonu's fellow All Black (Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images)

The World Cup is only a week old and already the topic of high tackles has been discussed ad nauseam. The most keenly discussed tackle so far has been Reece Hodge’s hit on Peceli Yato, which saw the Australian cop a three-week ban. 

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Clive Woodward caused a stir when he said on Twitter that the tackle was no more than a yellow, claiming how hard it is to stop someone as powerful as the Fijian by wrapping your arms around him. 

Although Hodge’s offence was primarily making contact with the head, rather than a no-arms tackle, many people took objection to this, including former Ireland scrum-half Peter Stringer. 

The 98-cap international said on Twitter: “Just because someone is ‘powerful’ it doesn’t give you the license to operate outside the laws.”

The Munster legend also added that players must “find a legal way to bring him down”. 

Since this retort, Stringer’s tackle on Jonah Lomu in 2002 has spread on social media to back up his point. 

When talking of powerful ball carriers, there are few better examples than the All Blacks great and this was one of the greatest mismatches in size the game has ever seen. 

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However, Stringer felled the winger, scything him down at his ankles despite conceding almost a foot in height and eight stone in weight to him. 

With players concentrating on making dominant tackles, the body position in contact is now getting higher and higher, with tackles like Stringer’s becoming increasingly rare. 

But there is no better way to take the referee and television match official out of the equation than a chop tackle, albeit there would still be the issue of no-arms tackles.

As cards look like they may be given aplenty over the next five weeks, this video may become even more popular.

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WATCH: Joe Schmidt and Rory Best discuss the Ireland team chosen to face Japan on Saturday   

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Nickers 7 hours ago
All Blacks sabbaticals ‘damage Super Rugby Pacific when it is fighting for survival’

Sabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.

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