With the commission banning the shoulder charge, will we see more and more use of the true shoulder charge? The one where you stand front on, drop you shoulder just under their rib cage, wrap your arms around and drive with your legs. I've got to tell you, I've been hit by both forms of shoulder charges and the old fashioned one always hurt more. These days there is so much focus on wrestling and grappling, the hardest way for a player to make a quick play-the-ball is if he is winded. It's a very simple skill that I think has been lost on a generation. It's odd to see a good front on tackle these days that knocks the wind out of the opposition. The old fashioned one has less risk and is more reliable as you're not throwing your entire weight into it. Even if you don't execute perfectly you still often come off with a decent piece of them rather than missing them all together.
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The progression back toward bigger players probably aids this too. Obviously you wouldn't want to take your eyes off a player with a step, but as we shift to monsters in the second row, centre and even on the wing, there'll probably be more opportunity to do this sort of thing?
Of course, there's more danger to the defender in doing this.. It's easy to get your head in the wrong position, and end up unconscious yourself.
That's really the only danger. It's not as dangerous as a mis-cued shoulder charge that could dislocate the defender's shoulder or land the attacker with a concussion.
I always thought that the technique described above was alot more courageous than a stray shoulder collecting someone on the chin
Agh yes the sortta tackle which was the first thing explained to me at my first training session as a junior eel and then drummed into us over and over like a broken record at every session and before every game. The good old days. That is simply the text book definition of a Rugby League tackle. Unfortunatley I can not see it happening since Bellyache elvolved the game into WWF. Unless you get them right in the sweet spot to wind them there is no reward. The rules and interpretation around the ruck should be tweeked to bring back reward for good old text book stuff like this and one on one tackles sweetly around the bootlaces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlv6BrrxD_4
This about sums up how I feel on the subject!
The only problem with these kinds of tackles is that it's very easy to offload in them, otherwise they're brilliant
If you hit them the right way, they won't be able to stand up, let alone offload.
I remember doing one of those ARL development days when I was younger. We were taught that one guy calls high, the other calls low and hit the attacker at the same time. If done properly the guy with the ball ends up flat on his back.