Thanks for this! It does sound woeful from an entertainment viewpoint.

While it's understandable why the tackling height change has been introduced, it is going to make life very difficult for officials. In the link posted by matt_wire, there is a video showing examples of what will now be deemed illegal tackles. To be honest, they all look pretty borderline to me regarding initial contact being above or below the armpit, and if I was refereeing, I don't know if I would call them as penalties or not. Referees will have to make quick decisions about tackle height, and they won't always get them right. It's going to cause a lot of discontent and as previously stated, there could be some ugly games, especially in the traditional opening weeks of over-zealous enforcement.

The Junior game has also been rocked by the news that starting at under 6's next season and eventually up to under 9's games will be touch rugby only and no tackling at all, kids will then at age 10 have to tackle having never done so before.

Yes not sure about that one, I've watched a fair bit of Junior RL over the years, it wasn't until the later years U12's+ that I started to notice more head clashes / concussions when the kids started getting bigger and the impacts got greater.

In my view it would be far better having the kids tackle sooner so they are used to the technique before they start getting bigger. Though I think this brings Junior RL more in line with Junior RU - they start tackling later than RL at present I think.

A full-contact sport with no contact. It's a ludicrous idea.

Meanwhile boxers, martial arts, Aussie rules, Gaelic football etc knock seven bells of you know what out of each other.

I have attended a lot of junior RL games over many years and totally agree that young kids need to tackle as soon as possible, a lot in the junior game will walk away and that has come from the players themselves. I play touch in my 60s so let’s wait till then please.