The lad was pure class when he played, such a shame at such a young age having to give up the game. RU appear to be in front of RL in terms of head high tackles, but changes have to be made to make the game safer.
It starts with rules in the game, and the referee applying those rules., The same applies to the touch judges they need to report what they see to the referee, the number of head high shots that go unpunished because they go unseen. Maybe a case for the video ref to advise what he sees. The head high shots that are seen are not the main problem ( although they are serious) its the head shots that go unpunished and are unseen that are the problem, the knees in the tackle that hit the head. Too much goes unpunished. Its like some players go out to physically hurt players especially in the tackle when the player is on the ground. The game is hard enough without having to accept head shots. Better tackling techniques need to be introduced at a young age.

Head shots straight red card, followed by a ban. It will hurt the game for a couple of years but the players will soon learn,

All very good points and I agree.

I think another thing that is overlooked is that in the 80s and before there was a genuine battle for possession so if you kicked into touch or ran into touch it wasn't a guaranteed turnover as there was a chance you could win the ball back at the scrum. You could also rake the ball back at the PTB and pinch it in the tackle no matter how many players were involved. That meant you could take risks more with possession.

Now I'm not advocating bringing back contested scrums as they ended up a being nightmare with the ref able to penalise every one as all the players were desperately trying to win the ball. That's happen again. But why not allow the raking back of the ball at the PTB? It would introduce a bit more variation and give an opportunity to for defences to win the ball.

Without question in union it's defending. All mine (and I had a few which thankfully have caused me no issues) were getting my head in the wrong place making a tackle. When they first started cracking down massively on head contact in Union a few years ago players were getting too low too early so any change of direction from the ball carrier was causing problems. It was carnage.

I'm not sure the "good old days" were better for players' health and brain injuries than today's game.

Maybe RL does need a sea change again, but if we change the game so it becomes unrecognisable, what are we trying to protect in the first place?

I've seen some incredible games in the modern era, I'm not with rose tinted glasses at all. There were some bloody turgid affairs in the 80s with big fat blokes running into each other for 80 minutes in a field of cold mud.

I think raking might end up over-running the game if re-introduced; I can imagine it happening a lot more than it used to.

I think in terms of players' health and brain injuries, as well as entertainment, I wouldn't necessarily frame it as a good old days vs bad new days argument. We can take the best/remove the worst from both. No need for the old-fashioned high shots and punching, and no need for the new constant high-impact, high-power style.

If we're worried about the game becoming unrecognisable, I'd look back to the 60s, to unlimited tackles, to the dog's leg defences of the 70s and 80s. There are no brawls in league any more. Like them or not, they were a pretty big part of the game 20 or 30 years ago. I'd look at other sports - cricket, football. Culture (including sport) changes massively all the time, what interests me more is whether it gets better or worse.

Exactly. People think concussions only occur thru high tackles and its not true. Tackle techniques have changed over the years. In league the first contact is usually in the chest area to prevent offloads but shoulders contact defenders heads and we see more clash of heads these days.

Tackle lower and you can get hips or knees to the head.