The ‘Shoulder Charge’ is creating a storm
The Leeds Rhinos face the Melbourne Storm in the World Club Challenge at Headingley Stadium this evening for what promises to be a ‘clash of the titans’. One of the biggest talking points leading into the game has been the outright banning of the ‘shoulder charge’. The ‘shoulder charge’ is when a defending player makes no attempt to wrap his arms around an attacking player in a tackle situation.
The ‘shoulder charge’ has come under much scrutiny in the early rounds of the 2013 Super League season as Theo Fages of Salford Reds and Zak Hardaker of Leeds Rhinos have both suffered instant ‘knock outs’ from challenges by Julian Bousquet and Rangi Chase respectively.
The meeting of the International Federation for Rugby League met earlier this week to accept a proposal from the Australian and New Zealand governing bodies to ban the ‘shoulder charge’ in the United Kingdom for the World Club Challenge fixture and the upcoming World Cup later this year on home soil. . Yesterday the RFL took the decision one step further, for the sake of uniformity, banning the shoulder charge from this weekend’s round 4 Super League fixtures going forward.
The decision to ban the ‘shoulder charge’ weighed up the safety concerns of the players against the physical nature of the sport. Many fans will argue that the decision will dilute the ferocity of the game which provides so much appeal to the sport’s followers.
Brian Canavan led a review on behalf of the Australian Rugby League Commission in August last year. His review found that shoulder charges made up only ‘0.05% of the 142,355 tackles made in 2012’, so on the face of it a seemingly insignificant figure. However two statistics were more alarming; ‘17% of all shoulder charges resulted in contact with the head of the ball carrier’ and ‘that the average G-force of the shoulder charge (measured from accelerometer data taken from GPS tracking) was 76% greater than a conventional head-on tackle (10.682 compared to 6.056).’
The combination of a tackle with 70% more impact than a conventional tackle coupled with a relatively high percentage that the tackle will result in a collision with the head of the ball carrier, justifies the fears of those concerned with player safety. Repeated concussions can cause disastrous long-term problems including a degenerative brain injury, called chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The disease has long been recognised; it was first used to describe boxers as being ‘punch drunk’. Increasingly however the disease has come to be seen as a danger to anyone who suffers repetitive concussions.
Now that the RFL has decided to ban the ‘shoulder charge’ in the UK what will the game miss? A huge conventional tackle still has the potential to change the course of a game, lifting fellow defensive players and rallying the crowd whereas the thought of seeing another player lying out cold, fitting and unable to breathe for just under 10 minutes as a result of a ‘shoulder charge’ in the case of Theo Fages, has no place in the game.
Hello@LawBlacks.com
0113 207 0000
@lawblacks
Blacks Solicitors LLP
