Safer Rugby League from 2024The independent Board of the Rugby Football League have accepted 44 recommendations from the sport’s Brain Health and Clinical Advisory Group Sub-Committees, as the latest and most wide-ranging phase of the drive to make the sport safer and more accessible at all levels. The recommendations – detailed here on the RFL website New for 2024 (rugby-league.com) - include changes for the 2024 season to the Laws, the Operational Rules, to Medical / First-Aid standards, and Coaching / Performance interventions.This will affect all levels of the sport, from the Betfred Super Leagues (Men and Women) to Under-6s at community clubs, in different ways. Since 2021, the RFL have been working with Leeds Beckett University on the TaCKLE Project (Tackle and Contact Kinematics, Loads and Exposure), led by Ben Jones, a Professor at LBU who is the RFL’s Strategic Lead for Performance and Research. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Safer Rugby League from 2024The independent Board of the Rugby Football League have accepted 44 recommendations from the sport’s Brain Health and Clinical Advisory Group Sub-Committees, as the latest and most wide-ranging phase of the drive to make the sport safer and more accessible at all levels. The recommendations – detailed here on the RFL website New for 2024 (rugby-league.com) - include changes for the 2024 season to the Laws, the Operational Rules, to Medical / First-Aid standards, and Coaching / Performance interventions.This will affect all levels of the sport, from the Betfred Super Leagues (Men and Women) to Under-6s at community clubs, in different ways. Since 2021, the RFL have been working with Leeds Beckett University on the TaCKLE Project (Tackle and Contact Kinematics, Loads and Exposure), led by Ben Jones, a Professor at LBU who is the RFL’s Strategic Lead for Performance and Research. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

You mean until they decide that body shots are dangerous too?

There's no such thing as safe rugby league.

If the clubs don't push back against this, they'll be playing tick and pass in a decade's time.

Most medics would ban the sport outright if they could.

Blame the ex players trying to bankrupt the sport.

We now have to future proof it or there will not be a sport within 5 years if they did nothing.

I’d take touch and pass over nothing.

I wouldn't.

If I wanted tap, I could go and watch the kids in the park for free.

And that's what an awful lot of other people will think.

At a time when we should be attracting people to the game, we're driving the hardcore away. It's madness.

Sadly it’s not madness.

It’s the only way a version of the sport can survive.

Ridiculous we are going down this road when other sports such as boxing and MMA are still functioning in their traditional ways (I've no issue with these sports by the way, I love watching both.

Even worse there seems to be in an increase in popularity (on my social media timelines) of these cheek slapping competitions both men and women where you go toe to toe and get absolutely pummelled, I mean what the hell?

I believe a lot of junior MMA and Boxing don’t allow head contact.

The pro game doesn’t change there is just more scrutiny of the players.

I do think in the community game if you are an adult you should be able to sign a waiver accepting responsibility for their personal choices in the same way they do in these slap fights that I’ve also seen.

It's the thin end of the wedge. The game's already being ruined by penalty after penalty, but this will be a whole new world of stoppages on top of that.

And we wonder why our crowds are so poor.

We used to have one of the best products on the sport market, and we've systematically diluted it. And it won't end there. Unless we stop this now, the next jerk who's ruined his life after retiring from the sport with no other plan will come along and claim kidney damage or busted hips or God knows what. And what will we do then? Abolish all tackles that aren't round the thighs.

We all know what a bad tackle is. It can easily be spotted by referees and penalised.

This monumental overreach by the medical authorities will not save the game, it will ultimately be the end of it.

It really is high time we broke away from the RFL. They're a bunch of thick, overpaid charlatans, who couldn't organise a fun night in a knocking shop.

As far as I can see SL won’t be affected, apart from the fact we will have independent concussion observers at every match.

It is the community game, reserves and academy that this applies to.

Initially there will undoubtedly be more penalties, however just like in Union once the players and refs get used to the new rules these penalties will reduce significantly.

If you look back on games from the 50’s to the 1980’s the game looks very different.

It was barbaric at times with what went on, on the pitch where a game of rugby rarely broke out between the thuggery. This was accepted as part of the game. These days some of the acts that went on would land you in jail.

I’m not pro the changes, but I understand why they are being put in place and I believe that is to future proof the sport from a constantly changing society in which we now live.

Calling this the death of rugby is a bit premature. Let's see how it plays out in the amateur and academy games this season. Players can still tackle hard, they just need to aim a bit lower. Does that mean we'll see more offloading? Would that mean we move away from controlling ruck speed and see faster PTBs and more flowing games?

The new rules will apply to SL in 2025.

As I said on the other thread I don't like it at all but suspect the game has no choice due to the insurance premiums. I can see huge problems ahead in implementing it. Just out of interest I watched 5 minutes of one of the 2023 games on YouTube and could barely find one tackle that wouldn't be illegal under the new rules.

Well I feel for the taller players if you think about a tackle from a smaller player to a taller player would suit them as they can legally hit the taller player with the shoulder in the midwith without bending down,but the taller player will struggle to get his arms under the armpits of a smaller player,if you get what I mean.

Yep - not sure how Sam Walters is supposed to tackle Mikey Lewis. He'll have to army crawl out of the defensive line.

Anyone who thinks this is something we've 'no choice but to accept' needs to give their head a wobble. In fact, I'd go as far as to say they are part of the problem.

We've no choice but to accept the end of the game as we know it.

To hell with that.

Does this 'contact above the shoulders' include a hand-off to the face when in possession of the ball?