Former All Blacks trio Justin Marshall, Jeff Wilson and Mils Muliaina are concerned that World Rugby are adding more confusion following their latest law amendment.
It was announced last week that the global governing body would be outlawing the ‘hip drop’ tackle from November 1.
That is when a tackler uses their bodyweight to pull their opponent to ground and drop onto their legs.
All Blacks v Wallabies incident
Many thought that Rob Valetini’s tackle on Leroy Carter, which saw him attempt to bring the All Blacks wing to ground before he scored, was an example of what World Rugby is trying to stamp out of the game.
Carter was in agony after touching down for his side’s fifth try and it has been revealed that the back three player has suffered a high ankle sprain.
Rugby union has followed the NRL by banning the ‘hip drop’ but Marshall insisted that Valetini’s hit should not be ruled illegal when the law comes into effect.
“The terminology in rugby league is basically riding the defender to the ground because they’re always trying to put the defender on the ground, usually with duel tacklers,” Marshall told The Breakdown.
“It’s usually when the second one arrives, he just basically puts all his bodyweight on a player that’s already ahead of him and then that creates knee, ankle, quad problems.
“It doesn’t often happen in rugby because obviously with our game we don’t have the duel hit and when the duel hit is coming at you, it is front on, it’s not usually a guy that is coming in from behind.
“The hip drop, there is no such thing in rugby, it’s coming under the terminology which is dangerous tackle. That to me is not a dangerous tackle.”
Despite the tackle injuring Carter, Marshall explained why he felt it was not a dangerous hit from the Wallabies loose forward.
‘We’ve got to be careful here’
“I saw some Bledisloe footage during the week of me trying to tackle Toutai Kefu and I did the same thing, I was just trying to hold him up over the line,” he said.
“All I was trying to do was stop him from getting the ball to ground and my weight was on his backside. Valetini was only trying to do the same.
“Carter’s ahead of him, he’s trying to pull him backwards. Look at Valetini, he’s leaning back towards the All Blacks tryline, thinking ‘I’ve got to try and stop him from grounding the ball’.
“He hasn’t intentionally put weight and force through the lower body of Leroy Carter to injure him, it is purely accidental, so we’ve got to be careful here.
“I think dangerous tackle can come in there but that is not a dangerous tackle, it’s just a player trying to stop a guy from scoring.”
After Wilson reminded Marshall of the November 1 schedule for the law coming into effect, the former scrum-half responded: “I hope they don’t go down that route.”
Wilson is not convinced, however, stating “Oh, they’re going to”, before Muliaina jumped in to give his two cents’ worth.
“That’s what worries me,” the All Blacks centurion said. “You’ve now got a Foul Play Review Officer that’s going to be constantly looking at things like that. There’s grey in that.”
Wilson agreed and hopes it does not bring about even more confusion, adding: “It needs to be very clear and obvious for me for it to remain in the game in terms of yellows and red cards, that’s dangerous territory. I don’t like it.”
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