Former Wales and British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton believes rugby’s crackdown on head contact has gone too far.
Writing in his column for The Times, Warburton echoed concerns previously raised by former referee Nigel Owens, arguing that while player welfare must remain paramount, the sport is paying a heavy price in terms of flow and spectacle.
World Rugby has introduced a series of law changes and frameworks aimed at reducing head injuries, including stricter sanctions and intervention programmes designed to alter player behaviour. But Warburton questioned whether those measures have achieved their intended effect.
“Too much time is being taken up looking at head contacts,” Warburton wrote. “The delays are all coming in good faith because the game is entirely right to focus on player welfare, but has it gone too far because of the inconsistencies involved? The momentum of matches is being killed too often.
“Have players really altered what they are doing in the eight years since then? I’m not sure they have,” he added.
“Head contacts in rugby union are almost unavoidable. The ugly, dirty ones are rightly punished, but the general number can only be reduced if players take responsibility.”
Warburton also placed the onus on coaches, questioning whether enough time is being spent on tackle technique at training.
“What we see in games is often the result of fatigue, intensity and speed, and to get it right in those circumstances is incredibly hard,” he wrote. “But are we doing enough to reduce how often these incidents happen?”
He cited head contact at rucks as particularly difficult to police, urging officials to apply more common sense and speed up decisions.
But he added that in some cases head contact is simply unavoidable, pointing to the Jac Morgan clear-out of Australia’s Carlo Tizzano on last year’s Lions tour Down Under (below) as a case in point.
“Rugby has never been perfect or completely safe, and it never will be,” Warburton concluded. “We must make it safer, but we also have to make sure it doesn’t become unwatchable. The game has to be quicker.”
The post ‘Refereeing of head contact is killing the game’ appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.