Lowering of the tackle height

I agree that "we can't keep doing things the same we have always done". 

However GMS is a mess of a system. As you move across different modules you end up having to sign in multiple times on the same visit. 

When the onus was put on to parents to self-register the RFU removed hoards of players from the club's entries. So we went overnight from 700+ kids to less than 80 a couple of years later. We still have the same number of kids playing but now they are no longer active in GMS. Parents try multiple times to register their kid and then get frustrated because GMS is not like using forgotten password on an equivalent consumer system. In the past there was an onus on registrars / age group managers to upload the kids to get an RFU number. The RFU celebrated that they had removed that burden from volunteers. Now it takes longer for the same individuals to try and coach parents through re-registering their kids. 

When you compare GMS to the equivalent with other sporting bodies it is dreadful. And now they are going to force it on the adult playing population. They might do better in that players in many club's lower sides probably didn't exist in GMS before. To be fair registering a brand new to the sport player isn't difficult. Re-registering a player who got put into limbo is where the aggravation lies. How many twenty-somethings are going to struggle to remember Mummy or Daddy's email address from when they were 6 or 7 and first received an RFU ID as a kid?

When the RFU hand in their Youth and Mini playing numbers to Sport England etc it must all be made up as so many kids are now no longer registered or sitting in limbo in the de-registered nether regions of GMS. Outside of club matches SOCS and SchoolsRugby capture the vast majority of school matches (and the scores which must incense many at the RFU) but there are a lot of schools that don't subscribe to their system whose matches won't appear. 

Apologies for the rant but the RFU really could do better (in many things) and GMS in its current guise is not up to the task. I'm flabbergasted that they assessed it and told themselves it was first for purpose.

As noted in the RFU survey. 

Tackling technique seems poor across the professional game.

Passing technique is little better.

And it seems hookers cannot hit a barn door when throwing in.

It does seem we need a lot more work on skills and perhaps less time on strength and conditioning.

And is the tackle height more important than players diving into rucks or neck rolling players out of rucks?

I want the game to be as safe as possible, while retaining its character.  But it needs to be something that referees in the wilds can enforce.

To suggest you get more 'head on head' in the community game is absolute rubbish. There are more games played at community level so it stands to reason that there may be more injuries but there is no convincing evidence of more 'head on head' injuries.

As FHLH suggests, taking away the ball carriers ability to defend their midriff will cause all kinds of other problems.

IMHO adopting anything below the armpit will be a disaster for the game.

Another can of worms?

The law says:

Players must not do anything that is reckless or dangerous to others including leading with the elbow or forearm

and

A ball-carrier is permitted to hand off an opponent provided excessive force is not used.

But we know the devil is in interpretation.