if 2 men are holding a guy up and he still trying to go forward......then the obvious step is to go for the legs....

they learn this at u7s level......

Still gives the attacking player a great chance to get an offload in.

Aye but to be fair Eric, you were supporting Hearts!!!!

You pair have no taste at all.

You know Celtic and Hibs are the teams to watch.



Eric are you down for Saturdays game?

Absolutely right !

'Mac' used to say to the backs, just follow me, you'll get some tries.

Blog on the subject.... greatestgame-kj.blogspot.com/201 ... ckles.html

Blog on the subject.... greatestgame-kj.blogspot.com/201 ... ckles.html

Only having 2 men in a tackle would make offloading pointless.

Mathers isn't going to gain any fame by his rugby skills.... looks like he is trying to gain fame by being a tool.

Rugby is a mans game, any injuries are purely accidental.

I'm glad its not just me that's noticed its already banned. I did reply to him on twitter saying its already banned last night, hence Lima getting a yellow and one match for it, and Shenton getting a yellow for it. Oddly enough didn't get a reply. Or even a Retweet

Seems he's after attention more than anything else.

Things like this also spark bitter idiots like saddo in to action. We've had a player banned for tackling round the legs and now Tuson for tackling. It'll be tick and pass next season.

No chance it would ever happen.

Mathers is just trying to make it so he has to make less tackles. Scared!

Not that he made many anyway.

Mathers & Briers should pop up to Wigan RU's pitch on Saturday mornings - there's a guy there who uses it to run tag rugby for 6-7 year olds.......they would fit right in ..... Mard !

Would you be singing from the same hymn sheet if this weekend darrel griffin popped up 3rd man in and hit sam on the knee and ended his career? i don't think so. mathers isn't trying to ban 3 men tackles just trying to avoid serious injuries all around.

I think everyone agrees that attacking the knee of the standing leg is out of order and yes I wouldn't be happy if someone ended anyones career doing one, a Wigan player included.

I just find a few things amusing about all of this; the tackle that Mathers is on a major crusade and getting a lot of attention about is ALREADY illegal, he may as well say he's against high shots, grapple tackles and tripping players up. Also this 3rd man thing is getting blown out of proportion, why is it the third man?? Can the second man not attack the knee? can the first?? It seems the infamous third man is the scapegoat for all that is evil in SL today.

Mathers initially said he wanted to outlaw the third man in the tackle which is what most replies on here is about, im sure nobody is in support of the "nasty third man" attacking the standing knee/ankle of a player.

Ironic as he got two bans for horrendous tackles when in our colours....

its a hard sport, people are going to get injured, deal with it,
if there is only 1 person in the tackle and that happens to connect around the knee then it could end badly.
silly argument, from a bunch or mard players

How about the 4th man in can ONLY tackle illegally? Knees, head, Super-Kel, whatever I don't mind as all of the legal possibilities will be filled by tacklers 1, 2 and 3.

The tackled players duty should be to fall over and play the ball as soon as tackler 3 appears on scene, anything less from the attacking player is a yellow card for slowing down the play the ball.

not everyone is, but the majority do agree.

I agree that the initial arguments were against the 3rd man in, rather than the attacking the knees, which has seen lima etc get bans this year, mathers was just saying how bad it can be, yesterday an 17/18 year old tweeted richie a picture of his knee which had been snapped in these dangerous tackles, its not good to see young talent, not even the professional players getting injured through these dangerous tactics.



Again, im sure you'll be so blase if sam was to get his career ended like a mard through one of these tackles. ignorance like yours isn't needed in the game.

i beg to differ, ignorance like yours in not needed,
I am currently recovering from a ACL reconstruction, from an inoccuous tackle.
at any point in any game someone can be injured, by banning 3 men in a tackle is not really reducing anything,
anyone tackling around the legs, could hurt anyone, are we going to outline tackling below the waist?
how about the defenders doing their ankles in whilst involved in a tackle,

tell ya what lets go the whole hog and make SL tig and pass!

I hope so everybody on here will have a chance of playing!

i dunno, we all might need padding, or be scared incase we break something from being tagged to hard!

sorry to hear about your injury mate, and i wish you a quick recovery, but you of all people then should understand then.

Any tackle in the game can cause injury, but this 3rd man attacking knee joints etc, is aimed at injuring a player, which is wrong. That was the whole point. I love the contact of the sport as much as the next man, and i think that a good legal tackle can't be beaten, but mathers isn't wrong, if he was, the RFL wouldnt have tried to (or even have) banned the tackle (seems the refs have loosened up on it again).

I would hate nothing more than to see the quality of the league deteriorate by having too many rules, but we need to protect our talent, and if players continue attacking the joints, when others are holding them up then we wont have much talent left.

Again though, i wish you a good healthy recovery.

Thanks for ur best wishes,

i agree if anyone attacks the knee it should be outlawed,
but i think this is not a massive problem in the sl,
there have been stupid tackles that have been low, but people actually attacking the knee on perpous i think is rare. Kinda think hes ranting about nothing,
Its my opinion anyway,
I think the grappling and dragging people down round their shoulders/neck area is a much more dangerous and is happening more and more in the game, this is what needs ranting about and clamping down on,

i completely agree that the grapple needs to be outlawed also, i agree that right now it's rare mate, but it has been happening more often i think, but fortunately no really serious injuries (knock on wood) in the SL for any team from it yet, but as i said, yesterday mathers tweeted a pic of a 17 year old lad who wont be able to play again after having it happen to him.