World Rugby has revealed that the largest-ever tackling survey is currently being carried out across the world game to study the impact of reducing tackle height in the competition, covering 1,300 matches, totaling around 20 Ten thousand tackles are being closely monitored.
In recent years, sporting bodies have introduced new tackle heights across rugby's community level, with England's Rugby Football Union implementing a new legal tackle height from below the base of the sternum in July last year. In France and Italy, the legal tackle height is below the waist.
The study was commissioned to investigate a variety of factors related to the tackle area, from body position to outcomes, on-field position and metrics including time in play, all of which influence the height of the tackle. This is done to determine how the height of the tackle changes when lowered. Game flow.
All levels and age groups of the game are being assessed, with 190 matches being examined in the UK and Ireland, including adult men's and women's matches and under-18 men's and women's rugby. In other countries, the focus will be on under-12 rugby, along with university rugby in South Africa and high school rugby in Japan.
World Rugby's scientific research consultant Ross Tucker revealed the plans at World Rugby's 2024 Player Welfare and Law Symposium, calling it “the largest and most ambitious study into tackling ever undertaken”. explained.
Eleven unions are participating in the study, with a focus on high-quality video recording of matches and up to four trained analysts per country using the same coding system.
The first results of the inquiry, which began last November, are expected to be released later this year in October, with a reassessment of northern hemisphere unions scheduled for May.
New Zealand Rugby in 2023 chooses to extend the tackle height trial for a further two years, with 61% of participants saying a lower tackle height is either much safer or somewhat safer for the first tackler , and 72% believe that tackle height is safer for ball carriers.
