Marcus Horan: Players must be taught to tackle properly

Former Irish international Marcus Horan believes that the World Rugby’s new tackle law is only part of the solution to combatting concussion and serious injuries in the sport.

The rule states that any contact with the head in “reckless tackles” will be penalised with at least a yellow card.

But Horan, now head coach of Shannon RFC, believes there is an onus on coaches and players to develop improved tackling techniques as well to prevent serious injuries. He reasoned: “The thinking behind it is to protect the guys being tackled but we have a lot of injuries to the guy making the tackle through poor technique, so I don’t know how that is going to help.

“Bringing the level of the tackle down is all very well but what I am seeing is the poor technique of guys putting heads in the wrong places, and that is a worry. I don’t know whether coaching has gone away from actually teaching it and whether, with so many new things in the game, that people are concentrating on other stuff.

“I have seen a lot of concussions from the guys making the tackle, but it (new law) does, I suppose, benefit the guy being tackled, and that’s a good thing in itself.

“It’s early days yet but you have to think of the guy who is now going in to tackle low and there is a worry that they will get a knee to the side of the head, therefore causing injury. Those are the concussion issues that I would be worried about, that poor technique going into contact.”

Horan did laud the decision to make change on the basis that something had to be done about the increased levels of concussion in the game.

“That’s to be commended but whether it’s the right change will only be seen in time when there are hard facts and statistics available after the new laws have been in operation for a time.

“I watched the Munster game last week in a pub and everyone was going ‘that’s a bit high, that’s going to be a yellow.’ Everyone was wincing with any contact at all. Now that it has been highlighted, it will be a case that tackles that were fine will be scrutinised much more, you can say that’s a good thing but you will undoubtedly see a lot more people leaving the field with yellow cards, and I don’t know how that will affect the game. One way or another, it will take weeks or maybe months to get a full idea of where it’s all going.”

Inexperienced referees “have gone berserk” in imposing yellow cards after a new law was introduced in 2017, according to ex-Wales star Jonathan Davies. PRO12 players from Ulster, Scarlets, and Ospreys were sin-binned this weekend. Davies blasted: “It’s a brilliant directive but it’s not being refereed properly. They’ve gone to the letter of the law, and it’s gone crazy.”