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There was a short spell last decade where the third man in tackles were being called ‘snapping the pole’. The saying kind of disappeared but is actually a very apposite representation for the dangerous nature of the tackle.
Which I think comes from the Melbourne Storm/Craig Bellamy culture of defence: two men tackle the upper body, hold him up as long as possible, a third man is hanging around waiting for the ref to shout the ‘HE…’ of ‘HEEEEEELD’ and he then dives into the lower body to snap the pole and they take him down, they lie on for a few seconds (this ends up being about four seconds after the ref has shouted ‘held’ which should be a penalty but rarely is) and their defensive line is always set.
Some people will say that’s good defence and it could be if the attacker was still moving, but when the attacker is stationary all his lower body joints become vulnerable and it doesn’t matter if the tackle comes in at the thighs, the hip and knee joints are open to weight induced injury. Also the time it takes all this to happen means rugby isn’t being played and the game as a spectacle isn’t as good.
And hip-drops, even on moving targets, can be career ending. They’re very dangerous and were never part of rugby league as far as I can remember until the last decade.
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