Hip drop tackle banned from Sunday

Announced on 7 October, the hip drop ban kicks in during round eight of the Top 14.

Announced by World Rugby on 7 October, the ban on the hip drop tackle comes into force on Sunday 1 November. The action is being added to Law 9.13 on dangerous play and will be sanctioned with at least a penalty.

Two techniques targeted

In a hip drop tackle, the defender grabs the ball carrier from the side or from behind, pulls him to ground with his bodyweight and then drops his hips onto the back of the player’s legs, often while chasing back.

The second action, tackling with one or both knees already on the ground before contact, was already illegal, since a player on the ground cannot make a tackle. World Rugby asked referees to penalise it from 5 October, in clear and obvious cases only. A knee touching the ground at the very moment of impact remains legal, former referee Nigel Owens explained on World Rugby’s Whistle Watch show.

For the hip drop, a penalty is only the minimum. Former international referee Laurent Cardona told France Bleu that a red card was entirely possible from this weekend.

Serious leg injuries

“Once we looked at the evidence, it was clear the hip drop tackles whilst rare, could cause significant leg injuries. It was also clear that knee drop tackles were on the rise,” said World Rugby chair Brett Robinson. The decision follows February’s Shape of the Game forum and research involving Leeds Beckett University. World Rugby has not published injury figures. Springbok Elrigh Louw missed ten months in 2025 after such a tackle, and All Blacks wing Leroy Carter was injured in early October by an action from Rob Valetini that Owens described as a textbook example of what is now outlawed.

Top 14 straddles the deadline

The timing has angered French officials. On 9 October, Mathieu Raynal, head of elite refereeing in France, said he was extremely surprised by the schedule, recalling an agreement to introduce new laws only in the July window. He also asked for clearer guidance on the scale of sanctions.

Round eight of the Top 14 falls either side of the date: six matches on Saturday 31 October, then Pau v Toulouse on Sunday evening. In Italy, the union is applying the law from Saturday. The Nations Championship, which resumes the following weekend, will also be played under the new law.