Quote CyberPieMan="CyberPieMan"the tackle wasn't malicious, but anything like that needs a straight red & meaningful sanction. Then tackling can be tweaked to make it effective without degrading the spectacle of the sport in general.
As soon as the quacks & risk-averse morris-dancers get involved, we may as well pack up & retire to the pub.
If the refs had the bottle to actually enforce the rules ([i15.d-Dangerous throw: If, in any tackle of, or contact with, an opponent that player is so lifted that he is placed in a position where it is likely that the first part of his body to make contact with the ground will be his head or neck (“the dangerous position”), then that tackle or contact will be deemed to be a dangerous throw unless, with the exercise of reasonable care, the dangerous position could not have been avoided.[/i), then scope for stuff like McKinnon's injury can be lessened (doesn't have to be a "classic" spear-tackle to be illegal).'"
There are quite a few variables when judging tackles like the one of McKinnon I would imagine. No doubt one argument put forward would be that the player was not in a position where his head or neck were likely to make first contact with the ground until McKinnon ducked his head.
If I'm not mistaken a penalty was given for the incident so the referee did have the bottle to enforce the above rule on this occasion. When it comes to the disciplinary it might be difficult to agree exactly how culpable Jordan McLean is in the tackle. He does lift McKinnon but not in a way that would generally be viewed as dangerous. He didn't lift the player between the legs or bring both legs above the horizontal and the two other players tackling above the waist were perhaps more responsible for the way that McKinnon was pushed downwards.
I think it would be pretty harsh for Jordan McLean to pick up too severe a ban despite the consequences. It wasn't a malicious tackle and other players contributed just as much. It was all three players who had a part to play in the injury.
The injury probably highlights the need to look into when lifting in tackles should or shouldn't be allowed. In many cases lifting in two or three man tackles is generally unnecessary. The ref should be calling held as soon as the player is lifted anyway but teams still lift to slow the play the ball down. Problems can sometimes come with the fact that the players involved might not be certain exactly what the other tackler is doing. A player might be held up by a tackler who has wrapped up the ball and another tackler might come in to lift the attacking players legs to stop him moving. If the original tackler decided to try to bring the player down at the same time then it could lead to a dangerous tackle despite neither player attempting anything malicious.
Some might say that it would be a knee-jerk reaction to start looking into banning something else but the most important thing is that injuries like the one suffered by McKinnon are as rare as possible without removing anything that makes the sport what it is.
