Concerned North Queensland NRL coach Neil Henry has called for an urgent crackdown on the potentially-dangerous “prowler” tackle which he warns is a far bigger risk to players’ health than the controversial shoulder charge.
While the medical profession pushes to ban the shoulder charge from rugby league, following Greg Inglis’s hit on St George Illawarra’s Dean Young, Henry says there’s a more pressing issue.
Henry believes the so-called prowler tackle – a third defender attacking the legs of a player held by two other defenders – is a far more dangerous and urgent problem facing the game’s decision makers.
The Cowboys coach said he’d support a rule change that if two defenders were holding the attacking player, then a third man could not join in.
“Any third man who comes in to take out the legs, he’s penalised,” said Henry, regarded as one of the best students of the game and credited by many with helping kickstart Queensland’s State of Origin run when he was Mal Meninga’s assistant from 2006-2009.
“If three players hit the defender simultaneously, then that’s ok, it’s a gang tackle.
“I don’t like that third player just driving in at the legs, we saw a bit of it (on Monday night) when the third man came in and attacked the single leg of a player who was already being held by two (players).”
Henry said it would not take much to deter the prowler – far more common than shoulder charges, which he did not have a problem with unless there was contact with the head.
“You see more third man in attacking legs than you do shoulder charges,” he said.
“I think the potential for knee injuries from that sort of tackle is greater than the risk of head injuries from shoulder charges.”
Henry said doctors were investigating the consequences associated with shoulder charges when they go wrong but he didn’t see a case for them to be banned from a game built on contact and collision.
“It needs to be looked at – we’re talking about player welfare here,” said Henry whose star playmaker Johnathan Thurston was knocked by an ugly elbow to the head by Dragons forward Matt Prior in May.
“The shoulder charge has been part of the fabric of the game for so long, I wouldn’t like to see it made illegal.
“There’s more of a case for gang tackling than there is for shoulder charges. You’re limited to the number of shoulder charges you see in a game. In some games, you don’t see any at all.
“We’ve seen a few this year but I think the review committee look at it and, if there’s contact to the head of the player carrying the ball, then it’s illegal.
“Any contact to (the) head is illegal.”