World Cup-winning former England centre Mike Tindall has added his voice to calls for rugby to embrace its physical nature and stop issuing red cards for accidental play.
Tindall, a member of England’s 2003 World Cup-winning team, spoke to the Telegraph on the current state of the game and questioned the drive to punish physical play with red card when there is no malice involved.
“The game is in a real tough spot,” Tindall told Telegraph Sport.
“It is a game played by educated people and watched by educated people but at the same time the game has to figure out what it is and from my point of view, having played it for 20 years, and I still watch it now, we’re basically a physical game and we need to just embrace that.
“That’s going to be hard knocks, that is what it is. That’s why we play Test matches, it’s a test of your body, your mind, your soul and that’s what people love to see. I think we have got to embrace what we are
“I don’t think we can make the game less physical because you are talking about getting red cards now for miniscule things that no one can actually make a difference to at the time. They just can’t. It’s a reaction thing.”
Tindall’s words echo those of former England enforcer Courtney Lawes, who wrote in a column for the Times UK that professional rugby is being harmed by an over-emphasis on player safety from the game’s governing bodies.
However, Tindall went on to question to motives behind the ongoing concussion lawsuit, which has seen nearly 300 former players take legal action against World Rugby.
“There’s so much more to early onset dementia than just having played the game and having taken knocks,” he said. “If you look at my career, I would probably be prime to that.
“I think there are lifestyle choices. There is no doubt it’s how clean you live your life, there’s hereditary stuff – there’s so much more that goes into it, I think, than just what goes on the pitch and what goes on the training paddock.
“We look too much into it thinking that by tackling lower that’s suddenly going to change everything. Even if you tackle around the chest, around the waist, you are still having the initial contact of going into those tackles and your head getting swung from side to side, flattening to the ground, the shaking of the brain.
“We have eradicated all of that malice and the horrible stuff and now you are talking margins that you can’t process quick enough to change outcomes.
“So that’s why you have just got to embrace what we are in the game, which everyone loves, that physical aspect, and everyone loved that Ireland versus South Africa game in the World Cup because everyone left everything on the field, and that’s what I want, as a fan, to see.”
Photo: Warren Little/Getty Images
The post Tindall: Stop messing with red cards appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
