French rugby authorities have called for a major change to reduce tackles to waist height after the death of the Stade Francais academy player Nicolas Chauvin this month.
Chauvin, 19, died after breaking his neck in a match in Bordeaux and his funeral was held in Paris this week. He was the third young player in France to die after a rugby game in the past five months, which has led to a national debate about player safety.
In response the French Rugby Federation and Ligue National de Rugby called World Rugby to an emergency player welfare summit in Paris on Thursday in which they proposed banning two-player tackles and tackling head-to-head as well as reducing the tackle height to be level with the waist.
The FFR president, Bernard Laporte, said in a subsequent statement: “Rugby must become a game of movement where avoidance overrides the impact. For this, it is important to change attitudes and change the rules, especially on tackling.
“The FFR and the NRL have therefore proposed to World Rugby an evolution of the rules by lowering the line of plating at the level of the belt, prohibiting the two-player tackle and tackle head-to-head.
France facing up to clamour for rugby to change after spate of tragedies | Andy Bull
“The tackler will have to bend if he comes to tackle, at the risk of being penalised. We have also proposed to World Rugby to experiment with these new rules on our amateur competitions.”
World Rugby has already been trialling a reduction in tackling to nipple height in this year’s world Under-20 championship and the RFU’s Championship Cup in response to increasing concerns over concussions suffered within the game.
Meanwhile, the Glasgow hooker George Turner is expected to be out for eight to 10 weeks after having ankle surgery. The Warriors and Scotland are already without Fraser Brown, who is sidelined until early February with a knee injury, and Turner is likely to be absent for the first two Six Nations matches.
Edinburgh’s Stuart McInally would be the first choice for Scotland but it leaves them with issues among the replacements. Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors face each other on Saturday with Grant Stewart – who signed his first professional deal with Glasgow this week – named as the latter’s starting hooker.
Elsewhere in the Pro14, the Ospreys host the Scarlets at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday with injuries having had an impact on both squads. The Scarlets have picked the Wales centre Hadleigh Parkes at fly-half with Rhys Patchell switching to full-back in the continued absence of Leigh Halfpenny through concussion. Halfpenny has been out of action since Wales defeated Australia on 10 November.
The Ospreys are minus four international props, three of them looseheads, with Nicky Smith, Rhodri Jones and Paul James all injured. The absences mean Gareth Thomas will start for the first time in the Pro14 for more than a year.
Because of Christmas falling midweek, the usual holiday derby matches are taking place on the weekends.
In European news, Northampton Saints have been awarded a bonus-point win after their Challenge Cup match in Romania against Timisoara Saracens was called off 20 minutes before kick-off because of heavy snow. Timisoara Saracens were found to have “not taken all appropriate measures” to protect the pitch. The Romanian club have the right to appeal but if the decision stands it would leave Saints second in Pool 1 behind the French club Clermont Auvergne.