It wasn't to the head?

It was an accidental clashing of both players' heads.

Watch the game again



Shoulder was to the chest, the force made Burgess' head whip forwards into Walkers head.

i dont no why jon wells has to keep going on about "premier rugby" two weeks in row when talkin about banning shoulder charge we dont need follow union in banning it weve all laughed at union for years when they cant shoulder charge. He makes it sound like he licks rugby unions ar*e call it rugby union pal instead of making it sound superior.

Now that I have seen the incident again, without any distractions from kids demanding that I turn it off because I am always watching rugby and not let them watch anything(even though usually I watch games and the super league show on the internet when they are usually in bed, so go figure), I could see that it was a clash of heads so I was wrong.

Shoulder charges are usually a pretty lazy effort. A lot of the time the attacker bounces off and makes another run anyway. Wouldn't get rid of them though. My biggest ever tackle when playing was a big shoulder charge. To make it illegal would be wrong. Any tackle to head though is wrong and illegal anyway.

Speaking on Sonny Bill. I think on youtube there's a video of him in early rugby union playing days putting in a massive shoulder charge on a fly half and getting sin binned. He doesn't seem to realise what he's done wrong.

No it should stay in the game,it's part and parcel of what Rugby is about.
A prime example is when Vinnie Anderson hit Danny Tickle in the Saints Wigan game a few years ago.
Hits like this make our sport fantastic to watch and therefore should be allowed.

Don't you normally need to "dip the shoulder" if your aiming for the chest



I sort of get what your saying but can not remember seeing (m)any shoulder charges that have deliverately targeted the head.

I do however think there's some distinction between a well aimed and controlled shoulder charge (SBW's being a good example) and a somewhat reckless and poorly controlled one like we saw on Friday that led to an accidental clash of heads - it's hard to regulate against the latter but I thought Walker's technique was sloppy.

I wouldn't ban them outright, but a shoulder direct to the head should be a sending off and lengthy ban. It's at least as bad as a swinging arm.

SBW is a good example in the WCC against Leeds a few years back. One on Bailey was a pearler IIRC - legitimate hit on the upper body. A later one against Marcus Bai clearly hit him full in the head, and IMO was illegal and dangerous, not something to be applauded.

The other thing is that I suspect players who go for a lot of said should charges are likely to hurt themselves in the long run. SBW had shoulder issues, and its not hard to see why. I'd be surprised if many coaches wanted to see it.

Why don't we make all the players wear knickers and ban all Saturday games so that they can buy shoes in peace.

sam burgess also had shoulder issues and spent a long period on the sidelines at bradford after having an opp on it when done right it is a great site to take this out of the game would be criminal in SL 90% of the time tackles arent strong enough thats why i like watching the NRL with guys like fui fui and sam thaiday or the beast up against uate.

no one likes to see a head shot but its great to see a forward flattened with a big tackle

No it wasnt.

Walkers shoulder hit Burgess bang on the Jaw. His head didnt get near Burgess.

That being said it was accidental. I like the big hit shoulder charge personally. When it is implemented properly it is an awesome sight. Any impact on the head should be penalised though.

Didnt Moz get banned in Aus in his 2nd season for hiting somone in the head with his shoulder?

That's what I thought at first but I've watched it tonight on tube of you and when I paused it at the impact it did look like there was a head clash.

It was accidental but it was also certainly reckless and an example of how not to do it.

shoulder charges are part of the game.

we dont wont to lesson the big impacts in the game and go down the RU route.

what do we ban next, hard tackles?

steady on, that would render a lot of my home films illegal

Best thing about our game and what makes it stand out as the unquestionble tougest team sport in the world.

Geez some people are soft these days!

Ive watched it a few times since and from that angle his head looks too high for the jaw. The main impact was the shoulder as you can see that plow into the bottom of his face. As I said though, accidental but like you said, reckless.

Only read the first post. Just want to say can't disagree more. It's part of the spectacle. Barely anyone gets injured from it. They banned it in Union. Three great reasons to keep it.

we watch the game for the skill of the players and the aggression and entertainment we dont want to turn it to union by taking a great part which is aggression out of the game

A lot of the collisions have already been coached out of the game in favour of lower impact techniques, presumably to reduce the number of missed tackles and to lessen the chances of injury. I'd have had no problem banning the shoulder charge in the past but it would be a serious loss now IMO.

just shows how clueless the Sky commentary team are they asking to eliminate this.

idiots.

Who has the ball there? If its the Cronulla player then the Manly player isnt even shoulder charging. Thats an elbow to the head and a totally different thing.

Quote ="Harrigan"Who has the ball there? If its the Cronulla player then the Manly player isnt even shoulder charging. Thats an elbow to the head and a totally different thing.'" to be honest it doesnt matter who has the ball the manly player is leading with the forearn/elbow to the head which makes it an illegal hit anyway just like this on morley www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqBZa1HLvQ8

Quote ="Harrigan"Who has the ball there? If its the Cronulla player then the Manly player isnt even shoulder charging. Thats an elbow to the head and a totally different thing.'" to be honest it doesnt matter who has the ball the manly player is leading with the forearn/elbow to the head which makes it an illegal hit anyway just like this on morley www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqBZa1HLvQ8

that wasnt a shoulder charge.

thats called a shooter tackle

also a shoulder charge involves the shoulder hence why its called a shoulder charge

hopoate on galloway

pretty much ended hoppas career and yes it was an elbow not a shoulder