Tackle height debate hits Australian rugby league amid US push

Australian rugby league can maintain its “gladiatorial” quality and reduce head injuries without a reduction in the tackle height, according to senior coaches in the game, even as English rugby league and world rugby union officials outlaw contact above the armpit.

English governing body the Rugby Football League (RFL) announced on Friday it would lower the legal height for tackles to below the armpit at all levels of the sport, including professional competitions, by 2025.

The changes are in response to recommendations designed to make the sport safer for its players and lower the risk of concussion. Similar moves have been announced recently in rugby union.

Representatives of the Australian Rugby League Commission declined to comment on the move by the RFL on Monday.

Australian rugby league already penalises tackles above the armpits in under-15s and age groups below. But some players believe the traditional, physical nature of rugby league is under threat from the RFL decision.

Newcastle Knights halfback Jackson Hastings posted on X, “It’ll be only tackle around the legs soon where the speed of the play the ball will be that quick we may as well play touch [football].”

Former NRL player Cameron King echoed Hastings’ sentiment, posting “Holy moly. RIP [rest in peace] rugby league it’s been nice knowing you.”

Former NRL coach and director of The Change Room health program, Matthew Elliott, said reducing the point of impact may offer some benefit to the safety of the ball-carrier, but better tackling technique would make the game even safer.

“The game’s biggest job is to make sure that coaches that are coaching kids aren’t trying to teach trick plays, but teaching them the right tackle technique,” Elliott said.

The physicality of the NRL is being used to promote the double header in Las Vegas that will start the 2024 season.

NRL players Aaron Woods and Campbell Graham appeared on an NFL broadcast on US network Fox on Monday to promote the rugby league matches to be played in March.

“There’s no helmets, there’s no pads, we’re just in there to make collision, and just get the fans pumped up like they are today,” Woods said from the sidelines of the Las Vegas Raiders versus Minnesota Vikings clash.

“We’re just going to try to get out here and bash each other really,” Graham said.

Brisbane Tigers’ Queensland Cup-winning coach, Matt Church, said tackling technique can also be improved at all levels, and that physical tackles don’t necessarily need to be high.

“Our grand final was evidence of how we tackled low but we were highly physical,” Church said of the Tigers’ September victory over Burleigh Bears. “We want to make the game safer while also maintaining the fabric of what has built our game to this level.”

The president of NSW Cup side the Newtown Jets, Barry Cotter, said he suspected change to tackle heights was inevitable and there will be pushback from “traditionalists”, but fans would have to move with the times.

“They like the gladiatorial aspects of it, but equally they don’t want to see people get hurt,” Cotter said.

The move by the RFL follows the decision by rugby union administrators Rugby Australia (RA) earlier this month to reduce the legal height of tackles to below the sternum from February in a two-year trial to apply to all levels except Super Rugby. Similar trials have been adopted in France, New Zealand and South Africa.

RA’s general manager of community rugby, Michael Procajlo, said at the time the change “undoubtedly will be a big difference between us and rugby league, here in Australia we are the first sport to get out in front of this”.

Another coach with NRL experience, who spoke to the Guardian but chose to remain anonymous, said the decision by RA did the opposite and helped improve the attraction of rugby league. He said coach education needed greater investment from the NRL and that tackling technique was key to making the game safer.

A report by a Senate committee investigating concussion in sport released in September recommended sports explore further rule modifications “in order to prevent and reduce the impact of concussion and repeated head trauma”. The government is currently drafting its response.