As i posted this on the Wigan board I thought I'd ask the same question on here.

I know that the shoulder charge was outlawed for players safety to primarily stop contact with the head of an opponent (either accidentally or deliberately)

But what about the ball carrier? does the same ruling apply.

Yesterday Elima was running the ball in and at the very last moment turned and led with his shoulder. He actually came off worse, but I really don't see the difference if we're looking at player protection. His shoulder could just as easily gone into the opposition players head.

Same happened at the London - Huddersfield. I believe it was David fauimu who was running into the defence, got threw and scored. However ref gave london the penalty for a shoulder charge againts fauimu

Brett Ferres.

I think the ruling should be clarified so that it's a shoulder charge tackle that is outlawed i.e. defenders can't shoulder charge the ball carrier.

In my view it should be ok for the ball carrier to lead with his shouder.

Difference is that a ball carrier might not see a shoulder charge coming e.g. from the side and therfore be caught badly offguard but defenders can see the ball carrier coming and are ready for the impact.

Having said that, any deliberate contact with anybody's head by anybody should be a penalty offence.

It's always been up to the defender to get the tackle right

Not the ball carrier

So long as he isn't leading with the elbow, using a fist as a fend then its ok

Every single tackle in a game sees the player dropping the shoulder into the tackle to bump off the tackler

This is just another example of why banning the shoulder charge was stupid (and unnecessary)

Agreed. There was already a rule about not hitting the head generally. We didn't need a separate one about not hitting the head with a shoulder charge specifically.

I sincerely hope this rule is reversed.

Raising the forearm by the attacker is more of a problem than the shoulder in any case.