The rule change I'm taking about is the 1/2 ban on the shoulder charge. What I mean by 1/2 ban is simple, only defending players are not allowed to shoulder charge. The attacking player with the ball can still twist his body and lead with his shoulder. When the NRL banned defending players from shoulder charging I have noticed many more defending players suffer head injuries. In today's game players are taught for the 1st player into a tackle to go high attempting to wrap up the ball. The problem is, when the ball carrier twists his body and the defending player can't protect himself using a shoulder charge defending players heads are coming into contact with attacking players shoulder's.
When you think about it, the person carrying the ball is running as hard and fast as possible and the 1st player in defence is basically trying to hug the attacking player, chest to chest.
I would be very interested to get the stat's on shoulder charges gone wrong resulting in conclusions before the rule change compared with defending players getting conclusion since the rule change.
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Interesting look at it. Maybe the nrl defensive techniques haven't caught up with the rule change.
I certainly think "some" shoulder charges are defensive, ie a player reacting to protect himself, as opposed to a being purely aggressive act.
Saying all that though there probably is no way of fixing this issue. It's a an aggressive sport and perhaps it's taken us 110 years to finally realise the sport is slightly flawed in concept. We can continue to adapt and try to fix issues but maybe, like you suggest, it just creates other issues.
In my opinion, the NRL made the shoulder charge illegal after a few shoulder charge attempts went wrong resulting in the defender's shoulder contacting the head of the ball carrier. I believe the better option would have been to allow defending players to use the shoulder charge but if they get it wrong and contact the head they would get a heavy suspension.