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?

SL will have to abide by it in 2025.

We have all these ex players Suing the rfl to thank for this. You know. The ones who apparently didn’t know the risks of playing rugby league. One of which did his very best to smash his forearm into the defenders head everytime he ran the ball in.

Everyone who has played the game knew that they risked injury from a broken leg etc. from which they could recover 99.9% of the time. What not everyone was aware of was the long term impact of repetitive head injuries from which they can't recover. Now the effects are known the sport has a duty of care to past and current players. In future maybe an insurance waiver could be introduced but then it would end up being "Why should the tax payer pay for their treatment; they knew the risks.", a view already taken by some sections of society about smokers and the obese.

Is this move going to offer greater protection to players though? Making defenders go lower increases the chances of catching hips and knees. I honestly think it could increase problems.

All the sit down protocols, extended pre season breaks, concussion subs etc are things we can all get behind but this tackling heigh law? I just can’t go with it and can’t see that it helps.

This was put on the HullFC board

From this;

Nick Fozzard
@Fozzythebear1
I hit sinfield with a very deliberate attack to his head hurting him quite badly giving away a penalty - my captain Nat wood shouted to me, “do it to him again” so I did - I head butted Barrie macdermot & got sent off - & we lost

To this;

Nick Fozzard
@Fozzythebear1
I’m involved in this case to provide for my kids & fiancée when I’m no longer here - I hope you can all relate to that

Can he litigate against himself?

If this is what we have to fear off the ex-players,then we will have no fear and he was always taking the ball in with his elbow up.

They're not exactly the brains of Britain. The problem is that a whole bunch of shifty lawyers are now smelling blood, and I have no confidence in the RFL fighting back against it hard enough.

Make no mistake. The future of the game as we know it is hanging in the balance here.