Quote: Staffs FC "The player was running forwards - i.e. moving one leg after the other in a forward direction. He wasn't being 'held' in one position (hence the absence of a call of 'held') which as I said earlier had it been the case [imight[/i be a different argument. If that is an unacceptable risk of injury then so are all other cases of a tackle on the legs where one or more defenders are in contact with the upper body. In other words as I said - there is no game of RL if that's the case.'"
Aye. The question is: are hard tackles on the legs when a player is held but not 'Held!', now out of bounds? I don't think it would necessarily be a disaster, but the rules have to be clear and reasonably consistently applied.
Also is there an objective cut-off where controlled ends and hard begins?
The point about Paea's build was 'interesting' too. Are little halfbacks more entitled to make certain tackles, that big props aren't?