They can look spectacular, but it's cheap spectacle in my book. If players want to put a big hit on and claim all the glory that comes with it, get your technique right and do it properly. I've never been a big fan of shoulder charges, partly because they're dangerous but mostly because they're just sloppy, lazy technique. There's skill, commitment and technique involved in a big tackle, any mug can launch their shoulder at someone.

I don't see why it's hard to police, shoulder contact with no attempt to use the arms to make a proper tackle equals penalty. They manage it in RU quite well. Yes players like SBW still do it, but they also get penalised more often than not. I don't know any rules that result in the correct call 100% of the time, but this is no harder than any other.

The "this is what makes RL" line is over dramatic. They're a failry infrequent occurrence anyway, and to be honest, they're a fairly recent development in happening in large numbers anyway. I'm not saying they never happened in the 80s and 90s, but I certainly don't recall them happening anything like as often as the once or so a game you might see now.

I'd be very happy to see SL follow suit and do away with them here too.

I don't think it makes the game, but I think its certainly a selling point. I have shown non RL fans YouTube clip such as NRL big hits etc and people have been wowed at the physicality of the game, and wanted to see more. .

They may only happen once or twice a game, but when they do get the crowd off their feet. I'd be sad to see it go

Proper clinical evidence on the effect of certain aspects of sports technique on sports injury is virtually impossible to generate. It certainly seems intuitively likely that an impact solely concentrated on one point of the body is going to risk greater damage than a more dissipated impact, and there have been a few injuries seen to result form these sort of non-tackles (SBW certainly had a couple in his NRL days).

Boxing is in a rather different situation given that head shots are an intrinsic part of the sport which the participant consents to in applying for their professional license. Shoulder charges are not inherently necessary to RL in the same way, so I imagine it might (might, I'm no legal expert) be more feasible to construct an argument that RL has neglected its duty of care to the players in not policing tackle technique better.

Boxing actually does monitor these things, and glove weights and rules are constantly monitored and tweaked, with the aim being to minimise the risk, rather than eliminate it. Serious brain injuries from normal boxing practice are more rare than peole think. Gerald McLellan, for instance, was injured by a freak clash of heads when Nigel Benn lost his footing, not by a punch.

For me it's a question of risk and reward. The risks may not be enormous, but as you say, a few "ooh" and "ahh" noises from the crowd are not a big enough reward to justify them.

I'm more impressed by proper big hits, and that certainly applies to people I know round here (RU country as you know...) who are RU people, who are impressed by the collisions in general in RL, but also by the technique in defence. Most of them will simply see these tackles (like Kidwell's admittedly hilarious demolition of Willie Mason) as making RL look a bit dirty and careless.

A big, legal hit will still get the crowd off their feet.

So can you use the shoulder charge with ball in hand then? The use of the charge can be used both ways, but people only moan about it in defence. When people are skittled using it with ball in hand no-one bats an eyelid.

Nobody much expects you to use both arms in a tckle when you're holding the ball though do they?

Yes it is, but a better spectacle and much faster.
After having withdrawal symptoms following the GF, I've been watching some of my rugby DVDs including all the finals since 2007.
Among my DVDs is a copy of the 1965 CC final when Hunslet were [irobbed[/i by Wigan. Those were the days of real hard rugby league, with proper scrums and real hookers.If that game were to be played today, it would have probably ended up as a 7 a side match.
R.I.P. Bernard Prior and Fred Ward.

I would keep it, and heavily punish anyone not bending their back enough to hit below the shoulders. I think it set our game apart, and all the pros I've seen are coming out saying the want it to stay.

..those same pros being part of the problem. Those same guys who will jump up and down today about how the shoulder charge should stay will be the first to sue the sport if/when they suffer from permanent long-term injury. If there was no such threat - with a clear precedent being set in the NFL - then nobody would touch the shoulder charge, even if players were dying early from repeated head knocks.

Again, I fail to get the idea that the shoulder charge somehow differentiates the game from other sports - which basically means RU. I'd have thought the lack of lineouts, fat props and contested scrums already did that.