Patrick McKendry: Unsafe cleanouts in rugby need a clean-up

All Blacks hooker Cody Taylor is caught under the ruck. photo / Brett Phibbs

Anyone who has been on the receiving end of a high tackle will welcome World Rugby's new crackdown.

Sometimes you see them coming in the form of a swinging arm, sometimes you don't. Either way, your nose, jaw or neck area is in the firing line and serious injury can result.

And yet, while World Rugby should be congratulated for taking high tackles, and by extension, head injuries, seriously, the administrators appear to be picking on the obvious, one that happens maybe two or three times a match, or maybe not at all, while neglecting a potentially more dangerous issue - the ruck "cleanout".

The modern-day professional player has to be a brave man or woman indeed, because they put their heads in extremely dangerous places in attempting to win the ball in the ruck or tackle, and what makes it worse is that as they're doing it, they can't see the threats coming.

How many times have we seen those brave individuals go for a turnover while doing everything within the law? They release the tackled player and support their own body weight, head down looking for the ball, only to be smashed backwards by an opposition player "cleaning out" a ruck or tackle. Their heads and the back of their necks are dangerously exposed. Really, it's a serious injury waiting to happen.

It's enough to make viewers wince, so heaven only knows what it's like for the players on the receiving end, let alone their loved ones watching.

It makes this new crackdown a bit perverse. All players know they are fair game when they have the ball, and that, to some extent, they are protected from being tackled when they don't have it, so why the free-for-all at the tackled ball or ruck situation, especially when their heads and necks are down and dangerously exposed?

The head is a "no-go" area, we have been told by World Rugby. Anyone guilty of making a high tackle, by accident or design, at any level of the game, will be hit with harsher sanctions from January 3. But it appears that tackles only are being targeted.

The first we will see of the new sanctions will be in the Super Rugby warm-up matches, which start in late January. They will apply in European club rugby earlier. The Six Nations match between Scotland and Ireland in Edinburgh on February 4 will be the first test in which the new law will be applied.

The minimum sanction for a deliberate head high tackle will be a yellow card, the maximum a red card with a suspension to match.

Even an accidental head high tackle will be sanctioned by a penalty.

"When making contact with another player during a tackle or attempted tackle or during other phases of the game, if a player makes accidental contact with an opponent's head, either directly or where the contact starts below the line of the shoulders, the player may still be sanctioned," World Rugby said in a statement. "This includes situations where the ball-carrier slips into the tackle."

Taking a stand on high tackles is a good one, but a broader message is needed. The ruck and tackle areas are difficult to police, but it appears World Rugby are waiting on a serious injury for them to complete the circle on head injuries.