world rugby brett gosper

World Rugby chief executive, Brett Gosper. (Photo: Gallo)

World Rugby CEO urges referees to crack down on dangerous tackles

World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper has urged referees to brandish more cards in an effort to reduce dangerous tackles resulting in concussion.

world rugby brett gosper

World Rugby chief executive, Brett Gosper. (Photo: Gallo)

World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper has asked referees to crack down on dangerous tackles by showing more cards.

Rugby Pass is reporting that the number of concussions has increased in each of the last seven years, and this year, four players have been forced to early retirement as a result of head injuries.

The latest high-profile player to suffer a concussion is Wales fullback Leigh Halfpenny, who has been ruled out of the Dragons’ match against South Africa at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.

This after he was on a receiving end of a no-arms tackle from Australian centre Samu Kerevi, who received no sanction for his part in the collision.

Other players who escaped punishment for dangerous play in recent weeks include Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and his England counterpart Owen Farrell.

owen farrell tackle
England’s fly-half Owen Farrell (L) makes a dubious tackle on South Africa’s Andre Esterhuizen late in the game which is looked at by officials during the international rugby union test match between England and South Africa at Twickenham stadium in south-west London on November 3, 2018. – England won the game 12-11. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)

Brett Gosper calls for referees to brandish more cards

To combat the scourge of dangerous tackles, Gosper urged referees to brandish more red cards to “change behaviour”.

“The only way you can get player behaviour to change is to sanction with red cards, and actually, we have probably not seen enough of it,” he said.

“I would say in many ways we have probably not been hard enough. There have probably not been as many yellow cards as we would like, and maybe not even as many red cards as we would like. We have not had the behaviour change that we are seeking yet, so we have to continue in that vein.

“The whole tackle law is to protect the ball carrier and the tackler, in fact mostly the tackler, given that two-thirds of concussions occur to that player rather than the one carrying the ball.

“Dropping the height of the tackle is due to the statistics showing us that if the player is bent at the waist as they tackle, they are four times less likely to suffer a concussion. Of course, when you drop the height of the tackle, you are also less likely to concuss the ball carrier.”

Gosper also admitted that despite new measures introduced to reduce the number of head injuries, the desired results are yet to be achieved.

Read: Scotland fume but Kolisi is cleared to face Wales