A government drive to boost participation in rugby in English schools is ill-conceived and risks children getting seriously hurt, public health doctors have warned.
Prof Allyson Pollock and colleagues at Queen Mary University of London say the contact sport is too dangerous.
They do not want an outright ban but say the sport must change and safeguards are needed.
The Rugby Football Union said steps had been taken to make the sport safer.
The RFU says the physical and social benefits that rugby offers to children “massively outweigh any potential drawbacks” and that myriad safety measures are already in place.
These include the provision of a safe environment through investment in pitches and facilities, ensuring adequate first aid and medical facilities, and fully training coaches in methods to prevent injuries to young players.
Ministers also want to see more children taking up sport.
In 2012, then Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt announced a plan to link up thousands of schools with rugby clubs.
But Prof Pollock fears there are not enough safety checks and measures to support this, meaning children could get hurt. She wants to see an increase in the recording of injuries and better injury prevention analysis. She claims that, compared with New Zealand, the UK has few strategies to protect players.
Each season, children have about a 1 in 10 chance of getting injured badly enough that they need at least 7 days off the pitch.
Some injuries are minor, but others can cause permanent disability.
Most rugby injuries occur during the tackle, as players collide at speed.
But scrums are the most dangerous part of play, where some of the most serious injuries occur, Prof Pollock and colleagues say in their report in the British Medical Journal.
Concussion and spinal trauma are the big concerns.
Some injuries can prove fatal – as the Robinson family from County Antrim know only too well after their 14-year-old son, Ben, died having been hurt in a school rugby match in 2011.
He collapsed at the end of that match after he was involved in a series of heavy tackles. An inquest heard that the teenager died from brain injuries.
Prof Pollock says not enough is being done to put in place injury monitoring and prevention strategies – and little is known about what really works.
“Only by collecting injury data and by providing feedback to individuals and organisations working on safety initiatives will the short – and long-term impact of injury prevention programmes, whether for rugby or any other sport, be known,” she said.
She added some measures – such as matching child rugby players by size rather than age, playing only non-contact matches and having fewer players on the pitch at any one time – may help reduce the frequency of the most severe injuries.
The RFU says set-phase play such as scrums and line-outs are introduced gradually, according to a child’s rugby development, with scrums initially only containing three players per side and are uncontested.
An RFU spokesman said: “We take player safety extremely seriously, and this is at the core of all the training we deliver to coaches, referees and medics, at all levels of the game.
“Rugby for young people at schools or clubs in England exists in different forms, both contact and non-contact.
“Significant work has been undertaken over a number of years to develop new rules of play to ensure maximum possible safety, with a structured progression to cover the introduction, playing, teaching and refereeing of the game from Under 7 to Under 18.”
A government spokesman said: “Player safety in schools and at all levels of sport is absolutely paramount and sports governing bodies and the government are completely committed to it.
“The rugby governing bodies work hard to ensure the sport in schools is played as safely as possible and that young people reap the benefits of participating – boosting their health, self-esteem and encouraging teamwork.”
bbc
Klomp sissies en kussingbyters!!
Gee vir die knaterlose klomp bleekbene almal baletskoentjies en tutu’s!!
Natuurlik gaan rugby gepaard met ‘n besering so nou en dan… maar ten minste kom die lot rugbyspelerkinders buite en lewe ‘n fikser en gesonder lewe as die klomp moepels wat binne sit en tos voor die TV!!
Flok, as dit die houding van deesdae se medici is, moet hulle ook maar maak dat hulle voor my oë wegfok!
Hierdie artikel moes nie eers lugtyd gekry het nie…
@ grootblousmile:
You must bear in mind that this is a country where health & Safety has taken over ALL walks of life.
The lake where we used to go boating as kids in summer has been laid silent in case kids fall overboard and drown.
It has been suggested by some in government that all kids in the street wear high visibility vests at all times as a safety measure.
But on the other hand, if you’re ill you have to wait 2 weeks to get a doctor’s appointment on the National Health.
As far as I’m aware though, VERY LITTLE contact sport is played in any Government school. “Too dangerous”.
The lunatics have taken over the (once) Great British asylum!
Don’t worry though, we’re on the way there here in the good old RSA.
Maybe JFK and Bullscot can enlighten us further on matters concerning the “safer” Britain of the 21st century?
3 @ Scrumdown:
What’s next, when will they take bicycles, skateboards and… fun away.. because that too is dangerous.
They’re farking nuts!
Don’t they see the positives of healthy and fitter children who grow up into productive and well-adapted individuals who are able to function sociably and in team environments?
This stupid woman, Prof Allyson Pollock… is a pillock whose kids, if she ever managed to pomp in enough safety to get some, are probably feeble little wankers or druggies with farking reversed mohawks for hair!
Flok, stupid is, as stupid does!
@ grootblousmile: you tell em GB.
5 @ Tassies:
Jeeez Tasse, I get soooooo upset when mindless kak like this is held up to be consumed…. under the guise of professional opinion, by daft individuals who steal our valuable oxygen every day.
@ grootblousmile: takes all kinds boet. Some women simply have it in for rugby. Been that way for decades. You and I come from a culture of moer or be moered. In my case boarding school where mommy was simply not around to check on her snotnose. So he got himself moered if he was smaller than the other snotnose.
I hope you oaks are going to try to enjoy the N vs S game on saturday without me. I stuffed up because I’ll be on a self-imposed 13 hour flight either side of that game, which I only realised after the horse had bolted. This will be the first one I will have missed that I can remember. Who’s gonna win? It would be a fool who stakes his pension on a winner of this one methinks. And I only get to read the result on RT the next day. Damn silly boy!!!!
7 @ Tassies:
Eish, I grew up on a dikwiel bicycle, bow and arrows slung around the one shoulder, vet ketty (catapult) around the neck – bow, arrows & ketty all of which were self made.
Going into the veld, where we had a real cave as our “Bende’s” den.
Shooting duiwe to braai…
Playing alies (marbles), spinning top, kleilat in the Sesmylspruit (where I picked up bilharzia) and having a whale of a time doing so.
I was given cricket bats, rugby balls, roller skates and stuff like that for birthday presents… and earned pocket money of 10c per year that I was old, meaning that when I was 10, I got R 1 per month pocket money… enough to buy a few sweets and one dinky toy or matchbox car (22c each).
We were outside the whole freegin time, whilst it was light… got moerred solidly when we were naughty.
My dad taught me woodwork…
… and as soon as I was old enough, I played rugby, lived rugby… ate, breathed and slept rugby and dreamed about big rugby…
I’m sure you were the same…
And we’re better off today for it, as people, as individuals who matter and mean something to those around us… who care about our fellow man.
Damn, I’m glad I grew up when I did… was EXACTLY the perfect time to grow up, before TV, before computer games, before What’s App and Texting…
You and me are fortunate, blessed, and deeply happy inside, where it really matters!!
8 @ Tassies:
We’ll drink a stiff one on you during the game, Tasse!
It seems as if this woman was prompted to do her research after her son has suffered a broken nose, broken leg, fractured cheekbone and concussion over a few years while playing rugby at school.
It would be interesting to see how the statistics she quoted about rugby injuries at school compare to injuries suffered by kids playing other sports or doing other outdoor activities.
I read once about 7-8 years ago that in NZ they introduced weight groups for schools’ rugby due to alarming rise of injuries
Can’t see it happened in the UK, however, most of the junior rugby at Pomland is played at the Public/Private schools where the weight issue is much less of a problem, can’t imagine Eton, Harrow or Kings College having that problem?
you know what I mean? 😉
VERY interesting article on rugby365 by Alan Zondagh about proposed law changes.
Am I allowed to post a link to the article here?
2 @ grootblousmile:
Is that a wrap on the knuckles for me for placing it here
9 @ grootblousmile:
it had similar experiences, my folks rented a house on a farm in the lowveld and we had the outdoors as our play ground, discovering unused caves/mine shafts in the hills, catching barbers with a nothing more than a bamboo stick with fishing line hook and float attached, sailing on tractor tubes down the canals etc, we only got out first TV, a small black and white one, in my teens so grew up listening to radio, so I hear where you are coming from.
Agree that you grew up in a time of privilege and even though my youth followed several decades after yours
Time up now will try get back to the subject in the article itself later on, oops must make sure my shoe laces are tied before I leave in case I trip up on them
13 @ GoBokkeAndIreland:
Hi there, had a quick look at that, it is quite a detailed one so will need time to go through to make any proper comments here, but what are your thoughts on some of the things that are being suggested? My problem is that there are many laws of the game that are either not blown consistently or at all or are left to refs interpretation, just applying them properly across the board I think would already make things better. Eg. something as simple as scrumhalf throwing in straight at scrum time goes wrong and unpunished time and again. I see Zondagh has a big section devoted to mauls which have become a potent attacking weapon and the source of many points but at the expense of backline playing expansive rugby to get the points in general, the problem with mauls is that refs seem to always view the attacking team as the one who can never do wrong at a maul and then ping defenders time and again, if I am not mistaken folk joining a maul (from the view of the attackers who have set up the maul) need to do so from behind the last man but we see players being driven out of a maul and then just jumping in at the side and helping to push it on and keep it rolling. I may be wrong with this view but if not then why don’t the refs ping attacking sides for doing it then we wouldn’t have it dominating as much and it wouldn’t be the problem talking point that it has become. Also they should monitor closely whether the ball carrier is staying bound to the maul at all times, I think they get away with not doing this at times.
Bulls team to take on Stormers has been announced, Piet v Zyl starts for injured Rudy Paige, Jan Serfontein back at 12, while Odendaal falls out of the 23 completely, nice to see Akona Ndungane back from injury on the bench.
The team to play the DHL Stormers (with Super caps) is: Jesse Kriel (10), Francois Hougaard (81), JJ Engelbrecht (58), Jan Serfontein (33), Bjorn Basson (80), Handré Pollard (20), Piet van Zyl (52), Pierre Spies (c, 112), Jacques du Plessis (24), Deon Stegmann (88), Grant Hattingh (43), Flip van der Merwe (74), Marcel van der Merwe (26), Adriaan Strauss (113), Dean Greyling (62). Replacements: Callie Visagie (44), Morné Mellett (33), Trevor Nyakane (51), Arno Botha (26), Lappies Labuschagne (33), Akona Ndungane (108), Tian Schoeman (3), Jurgen Visser (29).
@ Bullscot:
It’s a freaking long article! And there are tons of comments now.
I’m very interested on the section about cards, because in my view, you should always be 15 vs 15. But at the same time, you can’t have foul play going unpunished.
Rugby ” … is a beautiful heifer but a gadfly is coming against her from the north”? 🙂
bene sal breek neuse sal bloei tanne sal uit,maar waar daar baie mooi gekyk moet word is nek en kop beserings,daai is lewens gevaarlik en ek dink die antwoord is 1 beter gekwalifiseerde afrigting en 2 VOLDOENDE noodhulp langs die veld met ten minste n top paramedic by elke skool game wat trauma ondervinding het…..helfte van beserings word vererger deur noodhulp mense wat nie weet wat hulle doen nie
grootblousmile wrote:
Here you can’t even send your kid to school with peanut butter saarmies, in case one of the other kids have a nut allergy.
Most schools are nut free zones, although it’s debatable with the strange ideas and decisions the principles, teachers and school boards take
My friend in Vancouver’s laaitie will only eat peanut butter sandwiches, so she couldn’t send him anything for lunch to school
Hondo wrote:
I think it’s an excellent idea, they should do it in SA as well
Some high schools have forwards doing post matrics weighing as much or more than professional rugby players
Maybe they could set a weight range for each position in each age group?
@ Victoriabok:
@ Hondo:
the ideas you both have of grouping players according to size is basically one of the things Prof Pollock is proposing.
Although VicBok not sure a grouping along weight banding per position is the way to go because that still leaves you with the chance of a little scrumhalf having to take on a big prop.
This is a tricky one for me as can see both sides. I have often thought I would love to see the day rugby is played more widely in our schools, but at the sane time share the concern about injuries.
Reading through the detail it is clear Prof Pollock and her colleagues are NOT asking for a ban, but do express concerns around safety and are calling for measures to be taken to improve safety levels, surely this is not a terrible thing. After all medical people are there to try make or keep us healthy.
@ smallies:
#21 Smallies you make some sensible points regarding practical measures that need to be in place. I also share your concerns about head injuries and this is why I can’t believe the report earlier this week that said the wee Lions player who was knocked out by Willem Alberts was available for selection this week barely two weeks after the incident. Has he indeed been selected for any of Lions teams for this weekend?
The RFU say they are serious about things. George North has taken nasty head knocks this season. Let’s see if he plays again for Northampton this season, if the RFU sit back and let it happen then I may start to doubt whether they are as serious about safety as they say they are…
Hondo wrote:
Eton doesn’t have that problem because the food is so bad
@ gunther:
“Eton doesn’t have that problem because the food is so bad”
Eton (the English private school?) or Elton (the brown skinned Lions FH?)
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