The ban has been met with a largely negative reaction by NRL players, who argued tougher penalties for contact with an opponent's head would have been a better response to a spate of ugly shoulder charges last year.
The matter came to a head last year when St George Illawarra utility Dean Young was flattened when hit by South Sydney's Greg Inglis, who was banned for three matches as a result.
Inglis' Rabbitohs teammate Sam Burgess - a keen exponent of the shoulder charge - said he wasn't in favour of the ban.
"If I'm honest I think it's a crap rule change, because everyone likes seeing it - it's on every highlight reel with all the big hits,'' Burgess told Triple M's The Rush Hour.
'' ... You do have to change (your tackling technique) in a sense because the decisions to make a shoulder charge are split second, so you have to change your whole mindset defensively.
"I think we'll see a few penalties early on in the year.''
- AAP
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