Rugby-English authorities mull law changes to protect tacklers

Jan 19 ( Reuters) - England's rugby authorities are considering more measures to protect tacklers from the risk of concussion in the wake of an annual report into injuries in the English game.

Earlier this month, World Rugby announced a zero-tolerance policy on contact with the head, lowering the acceptable height of a tackle and introducing tougher sanctions for players who failed to adapt.

The report, published on Wednesday, revealed that concussion accounts for a quarter of all injuries in games, with two-thirds of concussions being sustained by tacklers.

"Initiatives around the height of the tackle will principally affect the ball carrier," Simon Kemp, the Rugby Football Union's chief medical officer, was quoted as saying by The Times.

"How we address reducing the concussion risk to the tackler is likely to need a range of different initiatives that people are working on at the moment. Two thirds of concussions are sustained by the tackler.

"Developing interventions to reduce the risk to the tackler must be the priority."

Concussion management remains one of the more pressing issues for the authorities, who hope to avoid lawsuits similar to those the National Football League ( NFL) was forced to settle with former American football players. (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)