A couple of tweets from @RichardMathers and @Briers6 regarding this today. I'm not sure how the rule could be written. 2 men max?

So two men in tackle, player still moving towards the line about to score the winning try in the last minute of the Grand Final..............



..........as a defending player stood 1 metre away what do you do?


Utter bollox.

its a load of rubbish, they just worried that wigan do it so well that they cant get around it
bunch of girls

Another example of why some rugby players, like children, should be seen and not heard.

It started off the recent story in the Aussie press about Melbourne's tacking "technique," which has come into question since they went to the top of the league - DeJa Vu??

Mathers then started off trying to get tackles below the knee banned, this I thought had already happened but refs have eased up on it. I do agree with this though, if a player is held up already then there is potential for injury if a player runs in and attacks the knee joint that's holding the weight.

BUT the call for no three man tackles is ridiculous.

Now, if he is going purely from a players welfare point and it's not another sly dig at Wigan then i'd like to see some proper stats of how many players are injured by the "third man."

So far the injuries I've seen to players these last two season are usually impact injuries or people falling awkwardly once tackled. These injuries tend to occur in a one or two man tackle as the "evil 3 man tackle" usually involves the tackled player being brought to the ground slowly, to slow the PTB down.

Using this logic maybe we should ban 1 and 2 man tackles and only allow tackles of 3 or more, or maybe just ban tackles all together for "the welfare of the players." Also some players get injured running fast, we should ban that too.

Rant over.

its interesting the two players that are arguing for this are the two biggest moaners in the league

They're also 2 players who read the forums. Someone's on a fishing trip I think...

mathers n briers, what a bunch of girls,
i always knew neither could take a tackle but this is stupid.
if they cant handle the heat get out of the kitchen,
I hope they get riduculed majorly in all media outlets, but i know that wont happen cos every1 loves briers and mathers is mollycoddled cos he was too crap for wigan

The three/four/ five man tackle has been in the game since day one. The great ball players like Brian McTigue loved it. Drive in, hands free, ball out, try time for the supporting back row or halfback.

Mathers voting to ban the three-man tackle is like a turkey voting for Christmas.

If only two men are involved and he's one of them, it'll be a try every time.

can we "tweet" that back to him? haha

They will ruin RL if the go down the same road as football and outlaw tackling. In the dark days when i followed Scottish football you had to committ murder to get cautioned , and a ban for 3 cautions made back page news. Fart 3 times in a football game now and you are sent off .

If it aint broken don't fix it . Thats why i watch Rugby League now. A mans game .

id love to but i have no idea how this twitter lark works,
managed to avoid everything to do with it

There are some irritating things that go on in tackles but to suggest that a carpet "third man in" ban is the answer is utter nonsense.

99% of the time Wigan's tackle technique is fine. If the 1% of the time it isn't they get penalised, then no worries. Same as any other team.

Third man in attacking the standing leg is where this is a problem, but that is already against the rules so what more needs to be done other than enforcing rules already in place