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?