Terry O’Connor has strong say on “horrendous” hip drop tackles

The hip drop tackle has been spoken about widely in recent weeks but especially this week after a number of players who banned for it after Easter.

Morgan Knowles was the one hit hardest with the St Helens star hit with a five match ban at a tribunal after injuring Wigan Warriors star Mike Cooper.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Brian Carney said of the tackle type

“I use the word tackle loosely. I can read out the rules here, ‘A defender using any part of their body to forcefully twist, bend or otherwise apply pressure to the limb or limbs of an opposing player posses an unnecessary risk of injury to that player.'”

Asked to explain what this meant in layman’s terms, Terry O’Connor had a strong say on the tackle:

“Well I am not sure where it got it’s name. Normally when players get they wrong, like putting Mike Cooper out for the year, that’s shocking and we all wish him well, but this is not an intentional tackle by some people.

“It looks bad but I was working this game and I didn’t really pick it up. All we saw was the reaction of Mike Cooper. He has broken free, he is breaking through tackles and striding free and then all of a sudden you have a player on the wrong side of the ruck that just tries to defend it and gets it wrong.

“They are terrible, everyone knows I don’t like three man tackles when someone comes in and cannonballs when you can’t protect themselves.

“I don’t know any coach who is teaching the hip drop tackle, it looks horrendous and there is no place for it in the game.

“Players have to be better front on.”