tap-tackle

English

Alternative forms

• tap tackle

Noun

tap-tackle (plural tap-tackles)

1. (rugby, American football) A tackle made from behind the running ball-carrier, where the tackler dives to touch the player's ankle and trips him up.
   • 2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     France's own stand-in stand-off Trinh-Duc missed with a drop-goal when well set but then set off on a curving run through a scattered defensive line which carried him deep into enemy territory until Weepu's desperate tap-tackle finally brought him down.

Synonyms

• ankle tap

Verb

tap-tackle (third-person singular simple present tap-tackles, present participle tap-tackling, simple past and past participle tap-tackled)

1. (rugby, American football) to tackle with a tap-tackle
   • 2019 November 2, Robert Kitson, “Rugby World Cup: South Africa surge to glory as England fall short”, in The Observer‎^[2]:

     Farrell drilled home a 46-metre penalty and should have had another when Pollard, attempting to jink his way out of defence, was tap-tackled by Anthony Watson and penalised for not releasing.