Hello all and thank you for creating this thread a few months back, I was glad to see I'm not the only one struggling the laws on this question! I thought I would revive the topic in case people had any further thoughts on it.
I'm a newbie ref and have done a couple of women's games so far, and as was mentioned in the original post, it's definitely a common feature in women's games (also remembering from my playing days). One team in particular was using them a lot the other day. Each time, the BC made sure they made contact with their hand open and not stiff arming, but still there were a couple of times where I felt quite uncomfortable not blowing the whistle, even though I couldn't say they had applied excessive force.
I agree with others that it's tricky because it's partly down to the tackler's poor technique and they shouldn't go into contact so upright in the first place, but safety wise even without applying "excessive force" you still get a hand on someone's neck or face, which is far from ideal.
I blew the whistle once where I was comfortable the BC had applied excessive force - penalty against the BC's team. Other types I let it play on, including for a hand off that landed on the last defender's neck near the try line and led to a try. I didn't feel that I could disallow the try when the BC had not gone beyond what the rules seem to allow and the last defender had used such a poor tackling technique in the first place.
But clearly the opposition didn't like getting so many hands in the face and I can understand why. I'm sure it's going to come up again so was wondering if anyone had any tips about judging what "excessive force" is? Again, assuming the contact to the neck or face is made with an open hand (not forearm or elbow) and isn't a full on slap or making contact with eyes...
Do you play on?
Do you have a word with both teams before the game saying what you expect them not to go beyond in relation to hand offs?
Thanks in advance for your contributions!