{"id":381889,"date":"2026-04-16T04:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381889\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T04:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:18:10","slug":"head-knock-chaos-why-rugbys-tackle-laws-are-punishing-the-wrong-player-paul-lewis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381889\/","title":{"rendered":"Head-knock chaos: Why rugby\u2019s tackle laws are punishing the wrong player \u2013 Paul Lewis"},"content":{"rendered":"

From an attacking scrum 5m out, the Highlanders<\/a> were immediately forced back to near their 22, where substitute halfback Adam Lennox threw the ball into a lineout. It was promptly nicked by the other Brumbies lock, Lachie Shaw, with replacement flanker Luke Reimer scoring from the resulting maul and drives.<\/p>\n

So the Highlanders can point to this costing them the match<\/a>. It\u2019s not known why they did not, like most sides, sacrifice a forward to get a specialist scrummager and lineout thrower on the park. If starting hooker Jack Taylor wasn\u2019t injured \u2013 and there were no signs of that in his 69th-minute subbing \u2013 then the Highlanders contributed to their own defeat.<\/p>\n

\"HighlandersHighlanders hooker Henry Bell. Photo \/ SmartFrame<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t change the fact an accidental head clash should not decide a match or that safety measures should not be a turn-off for audiences. The problem: the laws insist the tackler go low enough to avoid the head, despite repeated studies showing roughly 70% of concussions are suffered by tacklers, 30% by ball-carriers.<\/p>\n

So the wrong species is being protected. Ball-carriers typically bend low when faced with defenders to maximise ball retention, recycling and post-contact metres. The same thing happened in the Chiefs\u2019 62-17 romp over Moana Pasifika<\/a>. Ball-carrier Tupou Vaa\u2019i changed direction and, bending low, accidentally smacked his head against that of Moana Pasifika lock Tom Savage. Once Savage had received medical attention, he was yellow-carded by an embarrassed referee. Ludicrous.<\/p>\n

No one is diminishing the very real concern over brain disorders said to be caused by repeated head knocks. Sure, if a head injury is caused by a tackler\u2019s intent or recklessness, yellow or red cards are appropriate.<\/p>\n

However, if player safety is the name of the game \u2013 and it is \u2013 remove both players, carrier and tackler, from the game without penalty (but with a head injury assessment) and insist they are replaced. That way, the ball-carrier bears some of the responsibility and refs can decide whether a head clash is accidental or avoidable in a game where high-speed athletes regularly take evasive action.<\/p>\n

If that causes match-day squads to be increased from the current 23, so be it. <\/p>\n

Paul Lewis<\/a> writes about rugby, cricket, league, football, yachting, golf, the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From an attacking scrum 5m out, the Highlanders were immediately forced back to near their 22, where substitute…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[192,12413,3278,198538,12472,27494,111,139,69,17357,9617,34089,53902,213,40865,223,4276,25152],"class_list":{"0":"post-381889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-are","9":"tag-chaos","10":"tag-facts","11":"tag-headknock","12":"tag-laws","13":"tag-lewis","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-paul","18":"tag-player","19":"tag-punishing","20":"tag-rugbys","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-tackle","23":"tag-the","24":"tag-why","25":"tag-wrong"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}