2 more really contentious shoulder charges this weekend with Tony Puletua send off against Les Catalans + Greg Inglis hit against Souths.

=#FF4000had something to do with a certain tube of you that is against the Aup

I can see the logic that any contact with the head would be deemed dangerous but shoulder charges are 1 of the great differences between the 2 codes of rugby and to outlaw them would be an absolute shame.

I personally didnt see anything wrong with either collision and in my opinion should be part and parcel of the game. The reaction of the Saints players I think told you everything as it was a sensational hit by Pulteua and a send off IMO was ridiculous.

There was no penalty given against David Kidwell for his immense shot on Willie Mason a few years ago which was brilliant and part of the reason why people love RL.

I haven't seen the Puletua incident so can't comment. I have seen the Inglis incident and felt he was very lucky to stay on the field. He had no need to go into the tackle in the manner he did. The attacking player was tackled round the legs and all GI had to do was wrap the ball up but instead he decided to run in recklessly and made contact to the head with his shoulder. He has been charged with a grade 4 offence and is looking at a 4/5 game ban.

Any update on how Young is? I guess it wouldn't have helped that he wasn't looking.

All this talk of banning them in a joke. Contact with the head is already illegal, regardless of the style of tackle or the point of impact. It's a nonsense.

Update here www.dragons.com.au/news-display/ ... port/59927

Update here www.dragons.com.au/news-display/ ... port/59927

Quote ="rob_a"Update here www.dragons.com.au/news-display/ ... port/59927'" [i“Dean will follow are [sic standard post-concussion medical process and will be under review before making a decision on him later in the week,” said Dragons Performance Director Andrew Gray.[/i Round are way.

Quote ="rob_a"Update here www.dragons.com.au/news-display/ ... port/59927'" [i“Dean will follow are [sic standard post-concussion medical process and will be under review before making a decision on him later in the week,” said Dragons Performance Director Andrew Gray.[/i Round are way.

This.

Its consistancy.

Its extremely rare to see a player walk (or even yellow carded) for a high shot.

Yet a shoulder charge that hits the head is a sending off.

Very poor from GI. I would expect him to cop a decent ban for that. It wasn't necessary and quite silly.

It's a non issue. A shoulder charge done right is a brilliant thing to watch. Puletua's wasn't even a penalty, he just stood his ground and physically dominated his opponent. There was no evidence at all on the replays they showed on Sky that there was contact with the head and if there was it certainly wasn't Puletua's fault as he didn't jump into it, raise his elbow or dip the shoulder to attack the head.

It just makes me laugh how Ed & Steve were all up in arms about it. The same people who whooped and cheered when countless other players did it in the past. The likes of SBW, Burgess and Morley have made careers out of this style of tackling.

Are you saying the player was knocked out due to an attack to the body? You do realise this isn't physically possible, right?

Shoulder charges are awesome to see - when done properly. It's perfectly possible to smash a guy with a shoulder charge without making contact to the head.
TP's shoulder charge DID make contact with the Catalan's player's head, it was clear to see on the replay so I'm not sure wtf you were watching.
The reason why general high tackles are normally just penalised with a pen as opposed to a red in this case is that a shoulder charge can never be accidental or just an instinctive grab at a player. TP knew the guy was coming and lined him up for it. He got the point of contact wrong and paid the price.

It was a consistent decision as we had seen previously in the season with Sam Moa. Consistency from referees is all you can hope for most of the time.

Indeed.

I'm reminded when Luke Burgess broke his jaw following a shoulder charge to his head at Cas - nothing given.

Good to see they are becoming stricter and more consistent on this now.

I would have thought that it's entirely possible to lose consciousness if the head is whipped back due to an impact with the body?

The Inglis one looked bad but in fairness to him, he was already lining up Dean Young and running at full speed before his team-mate got hold - so to suggest that he lined him up [iafter[/i he was held is a little unfair.

Both Puletua and Inglis look to have got it wrong but from a refereeing perspective, only Mr Thaler got it right.

In general terms, I'd suggest that the shoulder charge is probably legitimate, but the responsibility is firmly on the player executing it to make sure the contact is legal; if it isn't, regardless of intent, outcome or the relative heights of the players involved, then the player making that illegal contact deserves to be penalised.

I don't like 'em. All they do is provide crappy footage for "Big Hits" compilations on youtube. Rugby is about tackling - not being a coward and running in with the shoulder.

It looked to me like TP 'dipped' ie bent his knees before impact, so there certainly wasn't any intention of making a high shot. Quite the opposite in fact.

People are still talking about shoulder charges. Replace "shoulder charge" with "tackle" and it's the same argumant.

That wasn't a shoulder, that was head on head and reckless from a cas player, when the game was well gone.

Similar to the one westwood did on Kirke a few weeks ago, as a wire fan, i can't say i was overly pleased with him doing that, no technique in it other than "running as fooking hard as i can to get 'im"

same with this, that was shoulder to shoulder and kidwell's head that caused the mouse under mason's eye.

just not enough. tommy's hit on the saint helens player was picture perfect and shows why a shoulder charge has a place in the game but not a lazzy one where they just turn and smash the shoulder anywhere. not only can it end a players career it also put the team at a disadvantage for the rest of the game as there a player down.

So it depends which club you play for now?



I find the hypocrisy on here remarkable, it's all 100% club based as well. There was nothing in the Puletua tackle at all, bar the badge on his shirt and you know it.

If we're ruling all shoulder charges which make contact with the head (Despite having no proof of that) as red cards, are all high tackles the same now then? There are four or five a game, every game which impact first on the head. Are we going to send all those players off as well? Or just the ones who play for Saints?

saddend stop being awkward for no reason. TP clearly hit mounis in the face with the shoulder and tommy leuluai smashed maurie in hes ribs. one being a good shoulder charge the other being an illegal one, if tp hit him a foot lower it would of been an a rib cruncher aswell but it wasn't and he rightly got red carded.

no why would you rule a shoulder charge and a lazzy high tackle the same?

So when somebody takes out a Saints player in this manner you're not going to squeal like a pig and insist the player is sent off. Get off your high horse, on this occasion Thaler got it spot on.

Hate to say this but I agree with Sadsack. An attack to someone's head is one thing, but someone essentially running into the defender's shoulder is something else.

Absolutely nothing in the Puletua tackle. If Mounis is stupid enough to run straight into someone's shoulder that's his daft fault. You run at gaps, not 6' 4" Pacific Islanders. That said, it's part of the game and it will always happen. I've done it, and I've done it to other people, it's a risk of the collision, and Puletua won that collision.

However, Inglis's attack is something else, he's advancing at speed towards the attacker and aims his upper body at the runner, resulting in the high collision. That's the sort of attack that needs punishing.

This sanitisation of RL is getting petty. Was it Meli who was penalised for a completely innocuous contact off the ball? Rubbish.

Oh come on, Puletua executed a forearm smash not a shoulder charge (dons tin hat)