Harrison Smith says rugby players have better tackling technique and that NFL can learn much about safety

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Harrison Smith, one of the NFL’s toughest tacklers, has said the sport can learn much from rugby techniques.

The Minnesota Vikings safety, famed for his fair but bonecrunching hits, recently spent time in England with team-mates Eric Kendricks and Anthony Barr.

The trio hosted several fan forum events, visiting the Principality Stadium and Twickenham along the way. 

Harrison Smith has endeared himself to Vikings fans and front office alike

The Vikings will play the Cleveland Browns at Twickenham in October, and rugby clearly left an impression on 27-year-old Smith. 

'Rugby players have a better technique than we do as far as tackling goes,' said Smith.

'I think we can probably learn some things as far as keeping your head out of it and leading with the shoulder and wrapping up and stuff, not hitting your head every time,' he continued.

Smith and his team-mats accompanied the Vince Lombardi Trophy on a tour of England

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has also studied and implemented rugby techniques to improve player safety.

‘We have found that you can tackle and totally emphasise shoulder tackling and getting your head out of football and really that coincides so much with the language and the message we’ve heard come about for all of the right reasons, that we wanted to share it, so we did,' Carroll said in the build-up to Super Bowl XLIX. 

To buy tickets for the upcoming 2017 London Games visit http://www.nfluk.com/tickets

Super Bowl LI, the climax of the NFL season, is live from Houston this Sunday at 11.30pm on BBC One, with a preview on The NFL Show this Saturday on BBC One after Match of the Day