🛑 Player Welfare Update: Knee & Hip Drop Tackles 🏉🛡️
Following recent guidance and law clarifications from World Rugby and the RFU, player safety remains our absolute top priority across all levels of the game.
We want to ensure our entire community—players, coaches, clubs, and supporters—are fully clued-up on knee and hip drop tackles, why they are heavily penalised, and how we protect players on the pitch.
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🛑 The Risk: Drop-style and knee-drop tackles introduce dangerous, unmitigated body weight, rotational force, or illegal off-feet contact onto a player's lower limbs or joints, significantly increasing the risk of serious injury.
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⚖️ The Law: Tacklers must always bring opponents to ground safely while staying on their feet. Dropping to one knee prematurely to make a tackle or executing a high-risk hip drop is heavily clamped down upon by match officials under current law interpretations. Knee drop has been clarified this month. Hip Drops become part of law in November.
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🤝 Working Together: Safe rugby relies on everyone—coaches drilling proper technique, players staying disciplined, and our referees protecting player welfare every weekend.
You can read the official breakdown and context directly via the
Let's keep our game safe, competitive, and enjoyable for everyone from grassroots to elite rugby! 🦊💪