{"id":718270,"date":"2026-06-06T04:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T04:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718270\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T04:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T04:07:09","slug":"what-is-a-shoulder-charge-in-the-nrl-and-does-it-need-to-make-contact-with-an-opponents-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718270\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a \u2018shoulder charge\u2019 in the NRL &#8211; and does it need to make contact with an opponent\u2019s head?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shoulder charges have been outlawed in the NRL since 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While the rules around shoulder charges haven\u2019t changed, they have certainly been back in the news once again in the past 10 days thanks largely to the actions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/newcastle-knights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newcastle Knights<\/a> skipper Kalyn Ponga.<\/p>\n<p>A quick skim of social media shows plenty of fans are passionate in their support of Ponga\u2019s body-on-the-line cover defence, with others just as passionate against it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It raises the issue of what actually is a \u2018shoulder charge\u2019 in the eyes of the NRL?<\/p>\n<p>MORE: <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/kalyn-ponga-new-shoulder-charge-drama-warbrick-storm-qld\/5ed136050d91345dce2551f4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ponga in ANOTHER shoulder charge drama &#8211; \u2018He\u2019s got some challenges\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nrl.com\/operations\/judiciary-and-match-review\/what-are-the-key-elements-and-indicators-of-each-offense\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">official wording<\/a> from the NRL:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA shoulder charge is where the tackling player uses his shoulder and\/or upper arm without, at the same time, using both of his arms to tackle or otherwise take hold of the opposing player. Arms obviously includes hands. The contact and force must be generated by the shoulder of the tackling player. Unless both arms are used or attempted to be used, then in any case where the shoulder and\/or upper are used to make forceful contact, it will be a shoulder charge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the NRL, the key question is whether the defender \u2018attempted to use both arms in attempting to wrap in the tackle\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Critically there is no mention of the point of impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In other words, whether the defender\u2019s shoulder contacts an opponent\u2019s head, neck or any other part of their body, it is still deemed a shoulder charge if it meets the above criteria &#8211; and if it does that, then it should at a bare minimum incur a penalty.<\/p>\n<p>Like it or loathe it, this has been the rule in the NRL for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Which makes the events at AAMI Park on Friday night all the more curious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shoulder charges have been outlawed in the NRL since 2013.\u00a0 While the rules around shoulder charges haven\u2019t changed,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-718270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}