A spear tackle is a dangerous tackle in rugby union, rugby league and Australian rules football whereby a player lifts another player into the air and dumps or drops them upside down. Spear tackles are particularly dangerous and have caused serious injury including spinal damage, dislocations and broken bones in the shoulder or neck. It can be recognised by the five actions where a player:
- Comes to a stop,
- grabs an opponent low,
- lifts them,
- twists them
- drives or drops them so that they land on their back, head or neck.
Read more about Spear Tackle: Rugby Union, Rugby League, Australian Rules Football, American and Canadian Football, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words spear and/or tackle:
“Lift not thy spear against the Muses’ bower:
The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
Went to the ground; and the repeated air
Of sad Electra’s poet had the power
To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.”
—Edgar Albert Guest (1881–1959)