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Wed 13 Mar 2013 | 11:00
Martin Bayfield gives practical demonstration of the tip-tackle law

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Comments

Following the recent red card - and subsequent suspension - for Gloucester's Darren Dawidiuk, Martin Bayfield and Craig Doyle put together this handy practical explanation for those of us wondering why we see certain tackles ruled as dangerous these days. 

Bayfield chatted to the referee after that game and this is how he explained the current rulings.

"What we're looking at is not the intent of the player, it's basically what happens. If you pick a player up off his feet, and he goes to the ground, whether you drive him into the ground or not.. if you let go of him and he hits the ground, upper chest, upper back to the head, it's a red card.

"As soon as you lift a player up to parallel, you are into penalty area," added Bayfield.

It sounds extremely difficult to make dominant tackles when it's explained like that, but these laws are put in place for player safety, so as long as you're not lifting both legs up and bringing a player parallel to the ground, it seems like you'll be okay, and so will he.

What are your thoughts on the above explanation, and the current law regarding the tip-tackle?

Posted By: Grant Constable

2 Comments

  • thunor
    2:45 PM 17/03/2013

    Yeah, that is intensely annoying, it became some sort of fad for the commentators to look for "downward pressure" at every TMO review; despite being entirely spurious.

    You still hear it mentioned, but to a lesser extent. I think some (most?) of them have realised it was nonsense.

  • glasgowexile
    9:55 PM 13/03/2013

    Quite right Matt. You'd think that the first port of call for an analyst doing a piece about a specific law would be....yep, looking up the Laws of the Game. Apparently not.

    Almost as annoying as those commentators who still look for "downward pressure" on TMO try decisions.

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