Very poor from GI. I would expect him to cop a decent ban for that. It wasn't necessary and quite silly.

It's a non issue. A shoulder charge done right is a brilliant thing to watch. Puletua's wasn't even a penalty, he just stood his ground and physically dominated his opponent. There was no evidence at all on the replays they showed on Sky that there was contact with the head and if there was it certainly wasn't Puletua's fault as he didn't jump into it, raise his elbow or dip the shoulder to attack the head.

It just makes me laugh how Ed & Steve were all up in arms about it. The same people who whooped and cheered when countless other players did it in the past. The likes of SBW, Burgess and Morley have made careers out of this style of tackling.

Are you saying the player was knocked out due to an attack to the body? You do realise this isn't physically possible, right?

Shoulder charges are awesome to see - when done properly. It's perfectly possible to smash a guy with a shoulder charge without making contact to the head.
TP's shoulder charge DID make contact with the Catalan's player's head, it was clear to see on the replay so I'm not sure wtf you were watching.
The reason why general high tackles are normally just penalised with a pen as opposed to a red in this case is that a shoulder charge can never be accidental or just an instinctive grab at a player. TP knew the guy was coming and lined him up for it. He got the point of contact wrong and paid the price.

It was a consistent decision as we had seen previously in the season with Sam Moa. Consistency from referees is all you can hope for most of the time.

Indeed.

I'm reminded when Luke Burgess broke his jaw following a shoulder charge to his head at Cas - nothing given.

Good to see they are becoming stricter and more consistent on this now.

I would have thought that it's entirely possible to lose consciousness if the head is whipped back due to an impact with the body?

The Inglis one looked bad but in fairness to him, he was already lining up Dean Young and running at full speed before his team-mate got hold - so to suggest that he lined him up [iafter[/i he was held is a little unfair.

Both Puletua and Inglis look to have got it wrong but from a refereeing perspective, only Mr Thaler got it right.

In general terms, I'd suggest that the shoulder charge is probably legitimate, but the responsibility is firmly on the player executing it to make sure the contact is legal; if it isn't, regardless of intent, outcome or the relative heights of the players involved, then the player making that illegal contact deserves to be penalised.

I don't like 'em. All they do is provide crappy footage for "Big Hits" compilations on youtube. Rugby is about tackling - not being a coward and running in with the shoulder.

It looked to me like TP 'dipped' ie bent his knees before impact, so there certainly wasn't any intention of making a high shot. Quite the opposite in fact.

People are still talking about shoulder charges. Replace "shoulder charge" with "tackle" and it's the same argumant.

That wasn't a shoulder, that was head on head and reckless from a cas player, when the game was well gone.

Similar to the one westwood did on Kirke a few weeks ago, as a wire fan, i can't say i was overly pleased with him doing that, no technique in it other than "running as fooking hard as i can to get 'im"

same with this, that was shoulder to shoulder and kidwell's head that caused the mouse under mason's eye.

just not enough. tommy's hit on the saint helens player was picture perfect and shows why a shoulder charge has a place in the game but not a lazzy one where they just turn and smash the shoulder anywhere. not only can it end a players career it also put the team at a disadvantage for the rest of the game as there a player down.

So it depends which club you play for now?

I find the hypocrisy on here remarkable, it's all 100% club based as well. There was nothing in the Puletua tackle at all, bar the badge on his shirt and you know it.

If we're ruling all shoulder charges which make contact with the head (Despite having no proof of that) as red cards, are all high tackles the same now then? There are four or five a game, every game which impact first on the head. Are we going to send all those players off as well? Or just the ones who play for Saints?