With immediate effect.

[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-league/news/article/480/8512451/rfl-enforce-shoulder-charge-ban[/url

Don't agree with the ban...

I see no reason why a fair shoulder charge should be banned and I think it is a great pity that it will be lost to our game. How many times has a dull game suddenly come alive after a big shoulder hit. Who was the last victim of a legal shoulder charge who suffered long term injury?

Not sure I'm keen on the way our game is heading when incidents like Webb and Westwood handbags now results in suspensions. Bring back the biff!

From what I see, no one is happy with the ban. Especially the players.

Tough call i think.... Everyone loves the biff of RL! It makes our game great when a good shoulder charge is used to take a player out of his boots but from the other side when it goes wrong it often goes very wrong!

Seems the RFL have decided the 'danger' of it going wrong outweighs the speculate of it doing right

On the bright side, Scruton might be getting injured less.

Other side benefit is he will be forced to stop attempting to make big hits every tackle and bouncing off most of the time leaving others to finish tackle of.

Maybe a better idea would have been to ask the players first and get their opinion before making what could be seen as a nanny rule.

You can still make an impact with a tackle without using a shoulder charge, all this will do is force players to improve their tackling technique.
As someone else pointed out on the VT, shoulder charges are actually pretty rare, and most of the time they go wrong anyway!

Players will also be banned from playing Pass the Parcel in case they get a Paper Cut!!

There is no sanctions currently in the RFL specifically for a shoulder charge and it will be interesting to see what wording they will use for further legislation.

Presently Sectiion 15 Misconduct :
(a) trips, kicks or strikes another player.
b) when effecting or attempting to effect a tackle makes contact with the head or neck of an opponent intentionally, recklessly or carelessly.

So will a shoulder charge without an attempt to tackle be deemed a strike under any circumstance and will an attempt to tackle absolve the tackler from punishment

if so to what extent will an attempt to tackle be assessed as absolution

I presume that legislation will be about the defender and not the ball carrier

A ball carrier could deliberately run into a defender in such a way with this new stupid ruling and cause the defender to be pinged! Its not Sporting but every one will look to take advantage, eg slow ptb's are rife cause the Refs are not enforcing it properly, we can expect a plethora of poor calls re the "Shoulder" charge!