Taking legal action against referees? Please tell me you are joking?

The game in the late 70s and 80s was far worse than now. There arent many Tamati's or Boyds running around these days. Discipline is better now than in those days as is player welfare and the medical staff pitchside. The issue is the players are now bigger, stronger and more athletic and the 10m rule means the collisions have greater impact than in years gone by in my opinion.

The game is faster, the players are stronger and the collisions are at a faster pace and with more force.

I dont believe most head high tackles are malicious these days, i think most occur when a player is heading down or when a defender is beaten by the attackers footwork.

Not enough, even these days, is known about concussion and a lot more research needs doing into it but head high tackles will always happen in every game of RL thats just the nature of it.

Stevie Ward was a fantastic and hes a cracking kid. Its a real shame hes had to retire at such a young age. He was used wrongly in his early Leeds career which has lead to so many injuries over the years. Weve lost a real talent. I hope the club continue to support Stevie as much as possible to help him recover fully. Leeds has shown what a caring club it is with Rob so fingers crossed it helps Stevie moving forward.

You can't compare the impacts from the 70's and 80's with what we have seen in more recent history. SBW has done more damage in a single game with, at the time, legal shoulder charges than Boyd did in his entire career (two notable exceptions to that obviously). I think that there are far too many high shots in RL. Watching the NRL is like watching an advert for brain damage. It's not even disguised , start your "hit" just above the ball and then ride up and smack the guy in the head and get away with it, or roll the player in the tackle and ram his head into the ground with a forearm. All at full speed. At least they outlawed the shoulder charge which was at best "reckless" and at worst attempted GBH.

IMO there is still too much macho BS around RL. The game is about skill, the best moments in RL that I remember are all skill based. Of course we will hear the cries of "we don't want to watch touch", which is of course nonsense. We have constant fannying about with rules at the PTB when we really need to look at the tackle height. If this does not happen prepare for class action law suits against the game from former players. It will happen.

There are many on here who thing the shoulder charge should be brought back - and it legal for the ball carrier to lead with the shoulder which seems odd to say the least.

Big hits are great to see but these don't involve the head at all - Marc Glanville was a great exponent - when he tackled you you knew about it i.e. you were struggling to breath not out of it with concussion.

On Stevie Ward - this is a tragedy - but anyone playing second row with Gale with suffer like this - he sees them as expendable collateral in his managing of the game. Look at the last play where Ward got the second concussion. Oliver Holmes is another player who is completely beat up too as in Nathan Sykes.

The problem with RL players is not how they look it’s when they start to speak. You then realise that they are a little short on education.
Imagine LMS as a commentator, now that would be interesting

Baz and Tez get away with it.

Tbf they play up to it a hell of a lot as some kind of RL Hale & Pace.

Barrie is very eloquent when he wants to be (for a prop anyway )
Terry just has that deep thick Lancastrian twang that is truly a marmite accent.

Both have benefited from media exposure and as I’ve always said, the best exponents for the game itself is the players. Always struck me when you’d see certain coaches etc really coming across poorly in a live interview yet remember Michael Maguire strolling round the old Trafford pitch after a GF win being totally at ease and giving a great, confident interview.

It can be learned. I remember when the boy Lineker started on the Beeb, he was awful. Now, he is a great presenter.

How i remember that he was bad really bad Now he is a man to be respected When he talks folk listen

See, I couldn’t disagree more - I’m not after ‘thugby league’ and I am thankful we have rid the game of most of the nasty, cheap late and high shots, leading with elbow etc that were a blight on the game in the 80’s and earlier - though we do appear to have replaced those with equally cheap, and for more dangerous wrestle moves, joint attacks, pressure on neck etc.... But the game I fell in love with as a kid in the mid-80’s included all that horrid stuff, and I still loved it. So whilst I want rid of that cheap rubbish, I want to keep some of the gladiatorial stuff like the fighting, the shoulder charges, the hatred.... it’s a part of the game I love - and those who watched the game pre-super league must have loved the game enough to still be fans today.

I’m very much of the opinion, you know the risks when you start playing, therefore you own the risk personally..... I’ve always played the game, my body is goosed as a result, but I always knew that would be the case - that’s my problem to deal with!

I've watched the game (as in physically gone to matches) since 1980. I remember the odd amusing punch up but I remember ball handling, pace, skill far more. My favourite players were fast and skillful -hence my username. Yes they were tough as well, everyone who plays RL is tough, it's a huge part of the game.

People don't know all the risks when they start playing, especially around TBI. That's patently obvious. I agree, players will tend to ignore the obvious risks, young people do. If someone had told me I would break my knee playing rugby and that I would spend 2 years practically on crutches and suffer pain with every step for the next 25 years (continuing and getting worse until I die) I would of course have carried on playing. And you can't make rugby "safe" and I wouldn't want to - it wouldn't be rugby. But it's also obvious that other contact sports are facing legal actions around brain injury caused by head impacts and it's a fact that there are far too many concussions in RL caused by head high tackles and unless that is dealt with by the people who run the game the sport may find itself in serious trouble.

One thing I think the sport could get rid of immediately is the practice of smashing kickers to the ground a split second after they have kicked the ball. It looks awful and adds nothing to the game. I'm not much of a fan of sticking up a high kick and then crunching a full back when practically defenceless either.

i don't like that either but if you outlaw that then you are allowing the kicker a free run to dummy and go through, with the defender standing off in the knowledge he basically can't commit due to the fact if he touches the kicker after the ball has gone then is he in deep water. it's a very difficult one to implement because the vast majority of them are only fractions from being good hits and always look ten times worse on super slow motion.

Yeah, I know. Ultimately I just like to see the creative players given more freedom and not fall victim to the McLorums of the game. I'd much rather watch Saints than Catalans. Totally get and respect your point though.

We coach players to slow down before the tackle, get their feet and head in the right place and make sure they don't get stepped. If you're in control then you can pull out of the tackle very late if needed.
A lot of problems like late hits on kickers are caused by bad technique in the first place.

Having played wing and full back I can tell you it's not much fun. When you know you are going to get smashed you feel very lonely. Luckily I was a lightweight so I sort of bent in the impact like rubber, bit like punching a feather.