Scrap helmets and pads, improve safety and technique

a correlation can be made that a lighter piece of headgear is used providing little benefit to lowering concussion risk in a sport using similar movements and techniques, tackling in NFL and Rugby is very similar, granted we are talking about a different scale of helmet, but the study related to american football also says that the helmet is not much protection

As you already suggested, Rugby players tackle different from NFL players because they are not wearing pads so it's really hard to use one sport to draw conclusions about the other sport. Pads change the impact speed, absorbtion and force so the variables are different in each sport.