Tackles on Paasi and Walmsley : Sun Jul 23, 2023 10:28 am
The tackles on Paasi and Walmsley in the semi final yesterday were horrific. The fear is Paasi's career is over as is Walmsley's season at least. Jon Wilkin has posted this on his Instagram this morning. Having looked at the tackles yesterday again repeatedly, they are some of the most cynical, deliberate attempts to injure that I've ever seen. It'll be interesting to see what the Match Review Panel make of it, as it's hard to judge whether they will even be ruled to be illegal at all. They could apply the shoulder charge rule to it I guess or throw a general misconduct type charge at it. There is a strong possibility it will just be ignored too, as Kendall did nothing but wince. The closest thing I've ever seen to this technique was Vila Mata'utia when he used to do it for Saints, but when he had the ball. I didn't like it then either and I think it was quickly outlawed. If it's the case that they find these tackles to not be against any rules, they need to change them. It had a 100% success rate in injurying opponents yesterday and the last thing we need is a raft of players having to retire as it's open season on lower legs and knee joints. It's going to cause some truly horrific injuries if it's allowed to continue.
I suspect a lot of trolls will fire back with 'nothing in it' and find it funny as it's most likely ended Saints hopes this season, but whilst 'there's nothing in it' might apply to the current rules, it cannot be left there. You can't have tackles like that in the game, it has to be stopped one way or the other.