Mathieu Raynal, who is the head of referees at the French Rugby Federation, has taken aim at World Rugby over their recent law announcement.
The global governing body have outlawed the ‘hip drop’ and ‘knee drop’ tackles, with the former coming into effect on November 1 and the latter being introduced immediately.
However, Raynal is unimpressed by the timing of it, claiming that there was an agreement to only introduce new laws in the Nations Championship, not after the northern hemisphere season had started.
FFR demand an explanation
“We are extremely surprised by the timetable imposed by World Rugby,” he told Rugbyrama.
“We had agreed, with all the nations and World Rugby, that any new rule would only come into effect during the July international window. We will therefore naturally ask World Rugby for an explanation regarding this change of timetable.”
Raynal believes that the outlawing of the ‘hip drop’, where the tackler uses their bodyweight to pull their opponent to ground and drop on their legs, is a positive move.
However, the former Test referee wants two things clarified and believes that introducing it in November has put them “in a difficult situation” over the next month.
“The hip drop tackle is a dangerous form of tackle. The positive point is World Rugby’s attention to the evolution of practices and its willingness to take responsibility for player protection,” he said.
“This is a very positive step, which we welcome. That being said, if this type of tackle presents a significant enough danger to justify regulatory intervention, why not implement this measure immediately?
“Setting its entry into force for November 1 lacks consistency and puts us in a difficult situation. What should we do about this type of tackle between now and November 1?
“This is the first point we need to clarify with World Rugby. The second concerns the scale of applicable sanctions. To date, we have not received sufficiently precise guidelines on the expected sanctions for this type of tackle. We will also be requesting clarification on this matter.”
‘Changes absolutely nothing’
Raynal also discussed the ‘knee drop’, which sees a player go down on one or both knees to make a tackle.
The law states that a player must be on their feet to make a hit, so this is simply providing clarification on that particular matter, but it is almost three years too late for the top ref boss.
“It’s positive that this prohibition is now explicitly formalised. However, it has always been forbidden to tackle an opponent when you are yourself on the ground,” he said.
“In France, we have been refereeing and penalising this type of tackle with a knee on the ground for over two and a half years. For us, this formalisation therefore changes absolutely nothing.”