Rugby union split with lowered tackle height ruling set for elite game

The legal tackle height is set to be lowered at professional level despite the current backlash to the Rugby Football Union’s waist high law change among amateurs, in a move that will send shockwaves through the sport.

The RFU is currently dealing with a rebellion to its decision to ban tackles above the waist for amateurs next season but World Rugby has confirmed change is afoot at all levels. Other home nations are set to follow the RFU’s lead in lowering the tackle height at grassroots level while a trial setting the legal height at the sternum is due to begin in New Zealand next year. In an interview with the Telegraph, World Rugby’s chief executive Alan Gilpin suggested that the tackle height would not be lowered as far as the waist at elite level but is set to come down to below the shoulders.

Related: RFU under pressure to justify ban on tackles above waist in amateur rugby

World Rugby is set to launch a global trial at the start of next year at amateur level. “We’re looking to make sure that we are implementing a lower tackle height across all parts of the game,” Gilpin told the Telegraph. “How that’s actually implemented is slightly different in the community game to the elite game.”

The radical change at amateur level in England was announced on the same day it emerged more than 55 amateur players joined the class-action lawsuit against rugby’s governing bodies — World Rugby, the RFU and Welsh Rugby Union — in alleging they were not protected from permanent brain injuries. The action is separate to the case involving a group of 225 former professional union players, which was already under way.

The backlash has been brutal – it was raised in the House of Commons on Thursday – and is on course to result in a vote of no confidence for the RFU board and its chief executive Bill Sweeney. Professional and amateur players and coaches alike have hit out at the decision, the lack of published evidence for making it and the manner in which it has been communicated. The issue was due to be discussed at an emergency council meeting on Thursday night.

The vote of no confidence is beckoning with nearly 300 clubs coming out in support of a special general meeting. Those clubs are being backed by the newly formed Community Clubs Union who were on Thursday night ensuring the wording of their call for an SGM was correct to avoid it being scuppered by the RFU’s legal department.

Addressing the change to the amateur game, the England and Northampton flanker Lewis Ludlam said: “It’s a really difficult issue, I can only speak from personal experience. My opinion is that when I get too low that’s when my concussions come. However, there’s obviously a lot of people who’ve put a lot of thought into this, and I think there’s information to come on it as well, I don’t think we’ve got the full story. So I guess we’re all waiting to see what has gone into that thought process, what the actual laws are going to be so that we can base our opinion on that really.”