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The 'sitting duck' Ireland reaction to RFU waist high tackling

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Inpho via Six Nations)

Ireland skipper Johnny Sexton has strongly disagreed with the RFU decision to limit the community game in England to waist-high tackles only from next season, an initiative also criticised by his national team coach Andy Farrell.

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Veteran player Sexton has regularly encountered head knocks throughout his lengthy career and although the new initiative in England doesn’t apply at professional level, he has taken a dim view of the impending change and would hate for it to be introduced into the grassroots game in Ireland by the IRFU.

Asked at the Guinness Six Nations launch in London on Monday what he thought of the English community game measure and if he would be in favour of its introduction in Ireland, Sexton didn’t hold back in explaining his dissatisfaction with the change.

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“Look, I don’t agree with it,” he stressed. “There’s no point sitting on the fence really, is there? I just think you have got tall people who play the game and it should be their decision how they tackle.

“Of course, we need to get the head shots out of the game but I think the tackles that we really need to take out of the game are the reckless, out of control, sprinting out of the line, tucking arms, all these type of ones you know, hitting someone there I don’t think should be option.

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“And it is not like you can’t get concussed chopping someone’s knees. You know, I see a hell of a lot of concussions, people getting their head on the wrong side, a knee to the temple, or a hip even to the side of the head. So I strongly disagree.”

Ireland boss Farrell, who was at a grassroots game at Coolmine in Dublin on Sunday to watch his youngest son Gabriel play, added: “It is super important that what has come with that is the correct coaching in the correct way, correct the technique because of the reasons that Johnny has just said.

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“If you are just saying to a kid that you need to tackle lower, then you even become more vulnerable in my opinion you know, if you are just sitting there with just your arms in front trying to wrap and get the head down etc, you are a sitting duck waiting to happen.

“So the coaching and the technique of how it is applied to tackling below the waist is absolutely crucial otherwise we are going to have a serious problem.”

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Jon 8 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”?

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j
john 10 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.

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