Worried Bok pundits plead ‘very dangerous’ illegal Irish tactic is banned for WC
A trio of South African pundits have called for referees to clamp down on the ‘cannon arm’ technique that Irish teams have been using recently.
The technique is where a ball carrier around the edge of a ruck places the non-ball-carrying arm on the ground when they carry, allowing them to get as low as they can, making it harder for tacklers to make a tackle.
This is a technique that Swys de Bruin, Nick Mallett and Robbi Kempson say Munster, Leinster and Ulster are all using, as well as Ireland, despite it being illegal.
While having this officiated more strictly by referees will benefit everyone in the game, maybe except Ireland, this is particularly important for South Africa, who have Ireland in their pool at the World Cup.
“It’s an Irish thing, Leinster do it,” de Bruin said on Supersport recently. “It’s going to go to the World Cup, you don’t know how to stop it and the Irish sides have got a definite benefit if World Rugby allow this to carry on.”
Mallet said: “He can go as low as he can with three points on the ground. Both feet are on the ground, he’s holding the ball and his hand is the other one. So you are going incredibly low, people latch onto you, they go past you and you use that as another leg to push yourself forward.
“You can’t tackle a player when he’s crawling on the ground!”
De Bruin added: “How dangerous is that! For the defender, for the ball carrier. It’s head on head, you will get dislocated arms and elbows one after the other.
“There’s a few things you can’t do in this game. You can’t play on the ground and they’re playing on the ground. It’s illegal and it must be stopped. Our discussion should go out there and it must be stopped before it becomes the norm.”
Watch the video here:
