Is this even legal?

I don't think it should be; it's not a good look. What do you reckon?

To be honest I don't think the ball carrier should be "tackling" the defender by grabbing his shirt but no penalty is ever given so it may not be illegal.

I agree with you it looks bad so maybe stop the ball carrier grabbing the defender's shirt.

I thought a rabbit punch was to the back of the head....

I'm sure one of our players got penalised for this? In recent years.

Like the time Gildart got sin binned for rubbing a players head... never seen it even penalised since.

And Joel Tomkins penalised for tackling Burrow by his collar... somehow it was only illegal during that one moment.

Well,yeah, that's why I wasn't sure if it was legal anyway. And I don't think it always happens because the ball-carrier grabs the tackler's shirt, as psb says. Is that really that common anyway?

Partington got done for it

Supposed to be open palm or it's a penalty.

Why does the ball carrier not get penalised for it?
Surely the ball carrier shouldn't be allowed to grab the shirt of the defender?

As far as I can see it's always because the ball carrier has grabbed the tackler's shirt. What else is there to grab?
The ball carrier is allowed to fend off a tackler and a tackler is allowed to push his hand/arm away but to continually "rabbit punch" the ball carrier's arm suggests he has hold of his shirt.

I'm gonna be watching like a hawk for the next instance, then!

He's allowed to grab the shirt prior to the tackle being called complete. Most of the time we see these attacks at the arm on upright tackles when the ref hasn't called held yet, because the defender is satisfied his teammates are going to finish off the tackle, so he wants to get back in the defensive line.

If the attacker carries on holding the shirt after the tackle is called complete, then it is a penalty. That doesn't really tend to happen though because at that point the attacker wants to play the ball as quickly as possible; grabbing onto a defender who wants to get away from you makes that harder.

Thanks

I'm not sure of any positives in letting an attacker grab the shirt of a defender and it only makes the game look ugly & Messier when the defender is trying to remove himself from the Tackle and Slows the PTB down. Also leads to frustration between the two players/teams.