Ed Bartlett of level six rugby club Old Reigatians in Surrey, started the petition after seeing the RFU’s announcement regarding a change to the legal tackle height yesterday. The rule change makes it only possible to legally make a tackle from the waist down.
“It’s crazy isn’t it, I didn’t think that it would get that many (signatures), yeah it’s gone pretty viral I would say.” Bartlett said.
The change.org petition to revoke the new proposed laws, has already surpassed 20,000 signatures, and is expected to only keep growing. A large following of the rugby community has rallied in support of the change, as have Premiership players who have shared their thoughts on social media.
The law changes will undoubtedly have the biggest impact across the grass roots, with the intention being to reduce head injuries at the lower levels of the game. Bartlett’s club, Old Reigatians, is a classic example of a community driven rugby club, and Bartlett fears that the law changes may drive players away from the sport.
“My humble view is, trying to re-train blokes that have played the game for twenty-odd years, playing at a veterans age, and saying ‘look, you now need to tackle below the waist’, is just unsustainable.
“My view is that a lot of players will just decide to leave the game, and not come back next year if this goes through. Obviously that’s going to have a massive knock-on effect, in terms of support through rugby clubs, and the actually ability for amateur sides to get players on the pitch.”
The RFU included the following statement in the announcement for the law changes:
“To support player welfare, the RFU Council agreed on Monday 16th January to lower the height of the tackle across the community game from July 1 2023. Designed to improve player safety and informed by data, this change aims to reduce head impact exposure and concussion risk in the tackle for both the ball carrier and tackler.”
Bartlett discussed his first impression of the rule changes, “I work in an office with some of the other lads who all play for the same team, quite rightly we we’re all up in uproar. We we’re questioning shall we even play the game again next year? Unfortunately, we all felt that this could potentially be an absolute farce, next year.”
The rule changes will come into affect ahead of the 2023/24 season, impacting those participating in National One or below for men’s rugby, and the Championship and below for the women’s game. It has not been confirmed whether the rugby governing bodies of other nations will follow suit with England.
School’s, Colleges and Universities across England will all be tackling these new laws, which Bartlett believes will only complicate matters for cross-border competitions.
“There’s a lot of people commenting on that, it’s very, very difficult. You’ve got for example, in University BUCS rugby, you’ve got Cardiff Metropolitan University, if they play Swansea University on one side of the border, and then they play maybe Bristol or Exeter on the other side of the border, have they got to play different rules?”
This is not the first time that the tackle height was reduced in England. The RFU implemented similar laws for the 2018/19 Championship Cup competition, yet ended the research prematurely due to the increasing number of concussions. Bartlett is concerned that history may in fact repeat itself.
“They decided that actually it was causing more concussions, and that was the net result of it. You know, more penalties, more concussions, rugby is stop-start enough as it is as a spectacle, and now it’s just going to be worse.”
“They’ve completely mis-judged how the amateur game is going to react to this, my biggest fear is that as I say, player’s will not want to play the game.”
“How is that going to affect sides, and their ability to play. Because, their not going to able to get the players out. It’s hard enough as it is to find a prop, a hooker, second rows, scrum halves, their all different shapes and sizes, and that’s what makes rugby such a unique game.”
The rule changes will implement a hopeful improvement on tackling technique at age group levels. However if a promising young player is selected for a Premiership match, they may not have ever experienced being tackled above the waist. Bartlett recognises how this presents more issues for the development of academy players.
“How does a player who has perhaps, throughout his schooling days, if he happens to get through and he’s only allowed to tackle at waist height, by the time he’s starts to play professional rugby, and lets say a 6ft 6′, 19 stone bloke, who’s continually smashed people in their body, in their ribs. How are they going to cope with that, they won’t know what their doing, they wouldn’t have experienced that?”
The new proposed law changes have certainly created quite the discussion on social media. There are advocates that the laws are going to benefit the players, yet a frustrated rugby community has also presented it’s voice. It will be interesting to see the reaction of the RFU, and whether of not they go back on their decision, or make adjustments that suit both groups.