So the thing about the jackal is that under the current laws it can already be interpreted as illegal as soon as a defender makes contact with them.

15.2 A ruck is formed when at least one player from each team are in contact, on their feet and over the ball which is on the ground. 15.3 Players involved in all stages of the ruck must have their heads and shoulders no lower than their hips. Sanction: Free-kick.

In the past when i’ve raised this while participating in the old sub-reddit, people would argue that at that point while the jackal could be illegal that there was a prior offence of the tackled player holding on anyway so its fine to keep allowing the jackal, because of

*15.11 Once a ruck has formed, no player may handle the ball unless they were able to get their hands on the ball before the ruck formed and stay on their feet. *

I think they’re ignoring that the principle of law 14 Tackle is: The actions of players involved in the tackle must ensure a fair contest and allow the ball to be available for play immediately. at least in terms of the responsibilities of the tacklers, particularly

*Tacklers must: * 14.5a Immediately release the ball and the ball-carrier after both players go to ground. 14.5b Immediately move away from the tackled player and from the ball or get up. 14.5d Allow the tackled player to release or play the ball. 14.5e Allow the tackled player to move away from the ball. Sanction: Penalty.

A & d get policed fairly well now, but b is an absolute lottery and e is completely ignored by both attack & defence. B is especially bad when there are more than two tacklers. The way its interpreted is that so long as the tackler is on the defenders side of the ruck they don’t have to move. But the law suggests that is irrelevant, they still need to move away form the tackled player and ball. Imagine if they did how in the way they would be for a lot of jackals!

But I would argue that it is better for Rugby to interpret 15.3 first and penalise the jackal on body height anyway; both because it would nerf the jackal a lot, plus make the game safer for everyone. I also think that would encourage teams to play with the ball more, which would mean the ball is in play longer and aerobically test defence more. Which in turn would hopefully encourage teams to select lighter, fitter players and hopefully with less mass impacting in tackles that would help with safety.

There is certainly a question about how teams contest and get the ball back from the jackal; but I’m not as worried about that. I think what we’ve seen through the tighter games in the World Cup is that the threat of the jackal wins the ball through the attacking team kicking the ball away as much as an actual turnover anyway. And if attacking teams aren’t able to breach the gainline it will still be very rare for them to play > 15 phases without wanting to kick or without a knock-on or forward pass.

I have thoughts on the bench etc as well; but this is already long enough! :)