Super Rugby players left confused over ‘zero tolerance’ head contact

WHAT all footballers crave is consistency on rulings and the increasingly penal judgement of dangerous tackles has opened a world of confounding cases, writes Jim Tucker.

Lachlan Boshier catches Ryan Crotty around the chops.

WHAT all footballers crave is consistency on rulings and the increasingly penal judgement of dangerous tackles has opened a world of confounding cases.

World Rugby has decided on a zero tolerance stance when it comes to tacklers making dangerous contact with an opponent’s head and judiciary judgements last year show that the trend was underway long before last weekend.

Reds skipper Scott Higginbotham will be a helpless figure for the next three games while under suspension.

Don’t suggest it to him but he could trawl through the recent round’s transgressions and sense a few anomalies.

Lachlan Boshier catches Ryan Crotty around the chops.

Crusaders prop Michael Alaalatoa was yellow carded for a swinging arm to the head of Chiefs player Damian McKenzie last weekend but escaped a citing or any examination beyond his 10-minute ousting.

In the same game, Crusaders centre Ryan Crotty torpedoed low at the tryline. Chiefs replacement Lachlan Boshier made the desperate tackle of the committed defender and bundled him into touch but the tackle lassoed Crotty hard around the top of the shoulder and neck.

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Even Crotty admitted he was surprised when a penalty try was awarded and the double-whammy of Boshier being sent to the sin bin. The Chiefs puzzled that it should only have been a penalty.

More and more, runners tuck their heads, charge forward in a low position and tacklers are expected to stop them without touching a hair on their heads. In a fast, dynamic game, it’s hard.

You then have to mix into the debate exactly what fans think they are watching.

Ryan Crotty receives medical attention.

“What a complete over-reaction,” tweeted one fan after the Higginbotham suspension, “Next season the players will be wearing (padded) Zorb balls.”

Or this: “I know you don’t attack the head but please. The game they play in heaven, now it’s played in kindergarten. Yes, I know I’m a dinosaur.”

The Twitter case against Higginbotham is as firm: “Players heads must be protected. A yellow from a referee in this case would have been a soft compromise decision.”

Now, don’t get us all started on deliberate knockdowns of passes and the penalty range there.

Originally published as Super Rugby players left confused over ‘zero tolerance’ head contact