Owen Farrell working on World Cup tackle technique

By PA Media

Sunday 15 September 2019 23:32, UK

England captain Owen Farrell has adjusted his tackle technique in fear of falling foul of World Rugby's crackdown on dangerous play.

Farrell was guilty of reckless no-arms challenges against South Africa and Australia last autumn - although he escaped punishment for both - to raise concerns over his risky style of stopping opponents.

World Rugby are determined to rid the game of contact to the head and in May issued a directive clarifying the process for officiating high tackles and shoulder charges, including the wider use of cards.

While England head coach Eddie Jones is concerned that games risk being "destroyed" by a poor decision from officials, he has also seen the value in refining Farrell's approach.

"Owen's not overly focused on that area, but he has made some adjustments," said defence coach John Mitchell.

"John Carrington, our strength and conditioning coach, is also my support on defence and he's very good at working on tackle technique. They have made some adjustments based on that [last autumn].

"There can be mitigating circumstances, but if your hands are in front of your shoulder you've got a better chance of making a proper wrap tackle.

"If your shoulder is ahead of your hands, then the law doesn't look after you very well."

Mitchell insists every team will enter Japan 2019 with a sense of uncertainty over how the officiating will play out in practice.

"It's at the back of everyone's mind and there is some apprehension around it," Mitchell added.

"You are just going to have to deal with whatever happens. There will definitely be some apprehension around - 'OK, is it actually going to be like that?'.

"You'd like to think that since then there has been learning, a little bit more common sense and you do hear the words 'mitigating circumstances'."

England begin their World Cup campaign against Tonga in Sapporo on September 22.