Concerns around injury risk in rugby union are well established, with the tackle consistently identified as the phase of play most associated with injury incidence. Concussion remains a key issue across all levels of the game. Against this background, governing bodies have increasingly turned to law modifications as a potential mechanism for reducing injury risk while preserving the core characteristics of the game.
Our recent publication in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport examines one such intervention: lowering the legal tackle height. The publication was led by Dr Lauren Guilfoyle and Dr Kilian Bibby and emerges from data collected by the Irish Rugby Injury Surveillance (IRIS) project, under the principal investigators Professor Ian Kenny and Professor Tom Comyns. It represents a sustained programme of collaborative research between the University of Limerick and the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), focused on generating high-quality evidence to improve player safety in the community game.
The IRFU embarked on a trial of a lower legal tackle height during the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons, aligned to World Rugby guidance, aiming to reduce head contact, and in turn concussion risk. The tackle height was lowered from the line of the armpit to the base of the sternum and this change was implemented across all levels of community rugby in Ireland.
The IRIS Project compared data collected before the law change, to data collected during the two trial seasons. What distinguishes this study is both its scale and its longitudinal design. Drawing on the IRIS project, we analysed injury data from 239 teams and 8,805 player-seasons, representing more than 86,000 hours of match exposure. This enabled comparisons across multiple pre-intervention seasons and a two-season trial period, providing one of the most comprehensive evaluations of a tackle height law modification on injury risk to date. The strength of this approach lies in its ability to assess real-world impact at a population level, rather than relying on short-term or isolated trials.
The findings provide strong evidence that lowering the tackle height can reduce injury risk in the adult game. In men’s community rugby, tackle-event concussion rates decreased by 38%, alongside an 18% reduction in overall match injuries. In the women’s game, the reductions were even more pronounced, with tackle-event concussion rates falling by 63% and overall injuries decreasing by 30%. These findings are particularly important given that the tackle accounts for the majority of injuries in rugby. Targeting this phase of play therefore represents one of the most impactful ways to improve player safety.
The results from schoolboy rugby, however, present a more nuanced picture. While overall injury rates decreased by 19%, there was no significant change in concussion rates. This divergence highlights the importance of context when implementing policy changes in sport. Differences in physical development, skill level, coaching practices, and squad turnover may all influence how younger players respond to such interventions. As a result, findings from the adult game cannot necessarily be assumed to translate directly to youth settings.
Following these findings, the IRFU committed to keeping the legal tackle height below the level of the sternum in the community game, and the IRIS Project will play a pivotal role in the continued monitoring.
A key strength of this study lies in its epidemiological approach, tracking injury trends over time to provide robust, population-level evidence on the impact of lowering the tackle height. By focusing on real-world injury outcomes, the study offers clear insight into how this intervention influenced player safety in practice, demonstrating meaningful reductions in injury risk across adult community rugby. Importantly, the intervention itself extended beyond the law change, with the IRFU supporting its implementation through education, stakeholder engagement, and ongoing communication across the game. This reflects the realities of applied sport settings, where policy, practice, and behaviour are closely interconnected, and where coordinated, system-wide approaches are likely to enhance the effectiveness of player welfare initiatives.
From a research impact perspective, this work sits firmly at the intersection of science, policy, and practice. It provides governing bodies with robust, real-world evidence to inform decision-making around tackle height regulations, while also offering clear implications for coaches, referees, and practitioners working in the community game. Just as importantly, it demonstrates the value of long-term injury surveillance systems such as IRIS in evaluating the effects of policy change at scale.
Looking ahead, the findings highlight the need for further research to better understand the mechanisms driving these outcomes. In particular, the absence of a reduction in concussion rates in schoolboy rugby warrants closer investigation, as identifying the factors underlying this divergence will be critical for designing effective, age-appropriate interventions. Ongoing work incorporating video analysis and stakeholder perspectives will provide a more detailed understanding of how players and officials adapted to the law change in practice.
Overall, this study offers strong evidence that lowering the tackle height to the base of the sternum can reduce concussion and injury rates in adult community rugby. It represents an important step forward in understanding how law modifications can contribute to safer sport. More broadly, it highlights how collaborative, applied research can move beyond identifying problems to shaping evidence-informed solutions that have real-world impact.
Dr Kilian Bibby is a doctoral researcher working in the Irish Rugby Injury Surveillance program (IRIS) in the Department of Physical Education and Sport Science at the University of Limerick. His primary PhD research topic is on contact breast injuries among female Rugby union players. Previously, Kilian has worked as an S&C for multiple years, spending time in France and New Zealand while also working with Italian side Benetton Treviso. Kilian holds a master’s degree in Sport Science (2021 -2022) and a bachelor’s degree in health management (2014-2018).
Contact: kilian.bibby@ul.ie Follow on twitter: @KilianBibby. Research Profiles: Kilian Bibby (researchgate.net) Kilian Bibby | LinkedIn
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