Huddersfield stars who coach amateurs voice concerns over RL’s new guidelines

OLIVER Russell and Luke Yates find themselves caught in two minds because of rugby league’s ‘ridiculous’ rule changes.

44 recommendations have been passed by the 13-a-side code’s governing body in a bid to reduce the risk of concussion and other brain injuries.

Huddersfield’s Luke Yates finds himself coaching amateur players to tackle to different law than he’ll be playing underSWPIX.COM

A key one, lowering the legal tackle height to armpit level, comes into the amateur game for 2024 before being adopted by the pro game a year later.

That leaves the Huddersfield pair facing split personalities as they coach at local clubs which will be under a different set of rules than they will play under.

And they are far from happy.

Giants skipper Yates, an assistant at Saddleworth Rangers, summed up his feelings in one word – ridiculous.

He said: “We haven’t done much contact training at all at Saddleworth, so we’ve not had to change anything.

“But we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it and not end up giving a lot of penalties away.

“It’s definitely been mentioned between the coaching staff, though. It’s a big change.

“We’ve got 18-year-olds there and 38-year-olds. We’re going to have to teach the old dogs some new tricks.”

Half back Russell, who coaches Oldham St Annes, also hit out at the decision to only introduce tackling at under-10 level.

He added: “I really can’t see it working, especially in the amateur game.

Oliver Russell, who also coaches at amateur level, says he cannot see the new rules workingSWPIX.COM

“To teach some 30-year-old lads who’ve been playing since they were six how to tackle again is going to be pretty impossible.

“You’re going to have six or seven lads sent off.

“I feel sorry for the refs. I feel sorry for the young people who can’t tackle until they’re at under-10s. When you sign up, you kind of know what’s coming.

“You sign up to play a high contact sport – for me, this is taking away the whole point of rugby league and it’s pretty sad.”