French Rugby Federation’s (FFR) technical director Didier Retiere has announced that amateur rugby clubs in France will trial law changes next season which will see the enforcement of a lower tackle height and the banning of a 2 player tackle.
“We’re going to work on lowering the height of the tackle down to the waist and we are aiming to prohibit two-man tackles,” Retiere said at a Player Welfare and Law Symposium organised by the FFR and World Rugby in Paris.
“We have been given the green light for amateur competitions with youngsters and adults and we’re waiting for the green light to eventually bring the changes into the academy competitions,”
It has been a traumatic period in French rugby of late with four young players losing their lives since last May in France including Stade Francais teenager Nicolas Chauvin who died following a neck break and Aurillac’s 21-year-old Louis Fajrowski who died following a heavy tackle.
In December of last year the FFR offered to trial the idea in their amateur competitions.
“Tackling around the shorts allows the ball carrier to off-load and allows them to break the line,”
“Defensive lines will have to put two or three players in the back-field so we could have less players in front line of defence.”
World Rugby has previously trialled lowering the tackle height from the shoulder to nipple line during U20 World Rugby Trophy in Romania.
The proposals are part of eight different law variations which World Rugby plans to trial in competitions across the globe in a 4-year cycle after the World Cup which ends early November.
World Rugby chief executive officer Brett Gosper revealed outcomes of the trials could be delivered in 12 months’ time.
“Relatively quickly in the first half of next year we can already get some results, hopefully positive on some of these changes,” he told AFP.
“Those law trials will go through the Laws Review group and the Rugby Committee before being discussed and maybe even improved in some aspects of it.”
