Ireland’s choke tackle use slammed

Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards has launched an attack on Six Nations rivals Ireland by criticising their use of the choke tackle.

Ireland are widely seen as the prime exponents of the method, pioneered at Test level by their defence coach Les Kiss, which aims to keep ball carriers up off the ground and easier to strip the ball from, or if not, create a maul which can often lead to a defensive penalty as the attacking team takes it to ground. Joe Schmidt’s side visit Cardiff for their Six Nations round four fixture on March 14 and ahead of Wales’ round three visit to Paris to meet France, Edwards has declared his distaste for the practice.

“I think the choke tackle is very, very dangerous. To me, it’s a bit of a blight on the game. It encourages people to tackle high. Everyone is going on about concussions and people tackling too high. Well, let’s start with that,” Edwards said during a Wales press conference yesterday.