Failure to go low, plays a big part on the weekend

We saw a number of cases where tries resulted from a failure to go low. In the Bulls/Brumbies game Speight straight armed a flailing Hougaard going high....only to commit the same mistake in not stopping JJ Englebrecht. Going low used to be the only thing.....miss a tackle high in the old days and you were likely to miss the game the following weekend. But the importance of containing the offload has encouraged high tackling in the modern game. - Fair enough, but when a player is the last tackler who can dispose of a runner near your line, he had best go low. Not only is the tackle more secure, but the range of tackle is significantly improved by the inherent diving motion. Would a committed low tackle from Tikoirotuma have stopped Dagg? - There are other cases that come to mind....Lambie on Schalk, de Jongh on Fransie. - One also wonders what has happened to Hougaard's defence. I recall a brilliant tackle from dead behind by Francois....now he seems hardly adequate. Yesterday he missed 3 of his 10 tackle attempts.

Mozart There are elements of truth in both formats of the game. A low tackle in open game play is mostly better and more certain in stopping an attacking move. A higher tackle when a player is on the way to score a try on the sideline is often enough the most effective way of stopping tries. You refer to the instance of Hougaard on Saturday as an example. That incident was not a real attempt by Hougaard to tackle the player concerned - if it was it was a very poor effort at best. Tou also refer to a specific tackle by De Jongh. Lets look at the general tendency in performance of the two players, since specific incidents in games can be misleading.. Hougaard over the last year showed a declining standard of all-round play in all aspects of scrummie and wing play. When he played on the wing in the tests last year - he made serious defensive flaws in both the All Blacks and Wallabies tests. Incidentally he not only missed the tackle you referred to - his tackling around the fringes on Saturday was really flawed badly. However, in his general performances at scrumhalf he showed serious deficiencies in slow and at times inaccurate ball delivery - poor reading of the games he played in - and in general a very poor kicking game, both insofar as strategic and line kicking is concerned. Saffex will have a fit about this statement - but it is based on all-round performances over the past year. I do not think that the deterioration in his all-round performance make him a candidate for Sprinbok selection this year. Insofar as De Jongh is concerned - he had a better year in Super 15 on attack than he had in the previous two years combined. After all he managed to scored 3 tries this year as against 2 in the revious two years combined. There was a slight decline in the number of balls lost in possession when he carried the balls and also in the number of times he knocked on balls passed to him. He had a previous record of deficiency in attack and solidity in defence and in fact his reputation was based more on his defence than on his attacking capacities. Despite the slight improvement in attacking and ball handling abilities mentioned earlier - his defense deteriorated badly and his tackling stats indicate that his missed tackle ratio this year varied between 25% and 40% of all attempted tackles - I can remember only one game that it was lower than the above figures and his average missed tackles was circa 28%, He was statistically by far the poorest defender at center in the whole of Super 15 this year. Both the above players this year have not done enough to merit higher selection and if they are to be selected by Meyer are guaranteed to let the Springboks down badly.

Circumstances often dictate that you don't have time to go low, especially in broken play or where a step takes a defender off balance.

Dave both of those tries on Saturday would have been stopped by a good low tackle...there was plenty of time

Its definitely true - going low is the fastest way to stop... anyone. The trick is tackling quick guys low eg Israel Fagg / Speight / Ioane - because if youre timing isn't 100% then they gone... I noticed last year the in RC the Argies did good job on Digby in this regard - another excellent low tackle was Ex- Reds player Peter Kimlin on the weekend for Brumbies - I pick him as a bolter for wallaby's - maybe bench or maybe blindside flanker... Reds have been tackling consistently lower than anyone else for years and S Faingaa is the undisputed champ of kneecap/ankle tackles....