The French Rugby Federation (FFR) and the French National League (LNR) have proposed to World Rugby to lower the legal height of a tackle to waist level, they announced on Thursday.

During a meeting in Paris between the three governing bodies, French rugby bosses, including FFR president Bernard Laporte, also suggested banning tackles by two players and head-on-head tackles.

The FFR have offered to trial the laws in their amateur competitions.

The conference was organised following the recent death of Stade Francais teenager Nicolas Chauvin.

Chauvin died in hospital after suffering a broken neck which triggered a heart attack during a match in Bordeaux on Sunday.

“Our game has to fundamentally evolve so that rugby becomes a game of movement and avoiding collisions. With that it’s important to change the mentality of players and change the laws, most notably to do with tackling,” Laporte said in a statement.

In September World Rugby had trialled lowering the tackle height from the shoulder to nipple line at the World Rugby U20 Trophy in Romania.

The organisation also confirmed it will put together a world forum to discuss player health and the evolution of the game’s laws in March 2019 in France.

It will begin the process of eventual law experimentations ahead of the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

The move comes after the RFU asked World Rugby to reduce the legal tackle height after seeing concussions in the English professional game increase for seven consecutive years.

RFU medical directory, Dr Simon Kemp told the Irish Times back in March that World Rugby was indeed considering reducing the legal height for a tackle.

“We would like World Rugby to give consideration to thinking about reducing the legal height for the tackle. “There’s very little margins for error with the permitted height of the tackle at the line of the shoulders. “It’s for World Rugby to consider and we know they’re doing that at the moment.

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© Agence France-Presse (Additional edits by Michael Corry)