Doctors urge schools to ban tackling in rugby

[LeftishBrit]

More than 70 doctors and academics are calling for a ban on tackling in rugby matches played in UK and Irish schools.

In an open letter to ministers, they say injuries from this "high-impact collision sport" can have lifelong consequences for children.

They argue two thirds of injuries in youth rugby and most concussions are down to tackles and urge schools to move to touch and non-contact rugby.

Supporters say rugby builds character and other forms are less challenging.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35696238

(This is attracting a lot of controversy!)

[Bad Dog]

1. In our local shopping centre thaey had posters up of the England Rugby club.

All of them had quotations saying something like, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life but Rugby wasn't one of them, Rugby taught me xyz, I would be doing something dull nasty or illegal if it wasn't for Rugby.

I wondered why they were conducting a charm offensive.

[Denzil_DC]

2. Injuries were taken quite lightly during games at school when I were a lad.

I tore a ligament in my knee during one game, and the PE master just ignored my writhing and screaming and played on (ligament tears are worse for pain than breaks in my experience). That put me out of action for six weeks, which didn't please him. Another kid broke his arm in a ruck. The PE master did eventually stop play for that one. Mind you, his idea of discipline involved "the slipper", which he used to heavily thwhack the outstretched hands of anyone who forgot their PE kit, or taking a particularly disfavoured kid into the showers for a one-to-one talking to, which seemed to involve a fair amount of "Ooyah, leave me alone, stop hitting me," etc. etc., which I don't think was coming from the master.

During an inter-school match, a bit of what would be a gross understatement to describe as rivalry developed between a pal of mine and one of the other team's forwards, who took the opportunity to kick him viciously in the back while he was on the ground after a ruck when the ref was blindsided. He cracked one of his vertebrae, which eventually disbarred my pal from following a career in the Royal Marines when it failed catastrophically during initial training.

It wasn't just the rugby. I dreaded compulsory cricket in the summer - it didn't appeal as a game, and a rock-hard ball whistling though the air at my hands did more to provoke an instinctive defensive reaction than an attempt to catch it (I wanted to play guitar, dammit).

Regular unofficial lunchtime soccer sessions (soccer wasn't a school sport, despite being very popular among us kids) could get quite dirty, though I don't remember anyone coming away with more than bruising, which was miraculous.

Worst I experienced was when a trainee teacher during his first PE lesson got us to run a mixed relay up and down the gym. My stage involved running backwards. Perhaps predictably, I stumbled, and broke my wrist trying to stop my fall. The PE master grudgingly came to see me in the changing rooms, got me to squeeze his hand, and when I feebly managed to do so, announced "Nah, it's not broken, just sprained." X-rays proved him an idiot, and that was the end of violin lessons for me. He later offered to break my other one after what he took to be a bit of lip from me.

I think I had quite enough character-forming, thanks very much. Having said all that, rugby without the tackling isn't rugby, IMO. We were more at risk of injury from our teachers than anything that happened on the field.

[T_i_B]

3. I heard the woman who came up with this on the radio last week

She came across as having a massive personal grudge against the sport, and Brian Moore (over opinionated commentator and former England hooker, who I'm not generally a fan of) ran rings round her.

To be perfectly frank, scrummaging is a bigger injury risk than tackling anyway, and it's also worth acknowledging that the way rugby is taught these days, with tackling and scrummaging introduced gradually really does minimise the risk of injuries, especially for younger players.

Rugby and cross country running were the only sports I was ever any good at when I was at school, and I prefer watching Rotherham Titans play rugby to watching football these days as it's cheaper, friendlier and more fun. I could have recommended a visit to London Welsh for you LeftishBrit, but following their relegation from the Premiership they've moved from playing in Oxford back to their old home in Richmond.

[1357Network]

4. what's the problem ?

What i am struggling to understand is why this is has been made such a problem, i can understand parents not wanting their children to get injured but surely you wouldn't make such a big deal out of it. The way i see it is that schools obviously do other physical sports like hockey or swimming and even football so what i think should be done to resolve this problem is that there should be a letter sent out to all year seven's parents at the start of the year where the parents/carers can state whether they want their children doing rugby, if so they do it and that's that if not why make such a big deal and do other sports like the ones i have already stated.


,1357Network

[T_i_B]

5. The problem here is Professor Allyson Pollock

Professor of public health research and policy at Queen Mary University of London. After her son was injured playing rugby she's started doing all that she can to try and shut down rugby union and rugby league out of spite. To be honest, when you actually listen to her talk on the subject you wonder how on earth she ever got to be a professor in the first place.

[LeftishBrit]

6. My own comment...

Last edited Sat Mar 12, 2016, 08:30 AM - Edit history (1)

OTOH, I think that forcing kids into games such as rugby, if they don't enjoy them, tends to do more harm than good: it encourages bullying by and of both kids and teachers, and puts a lot of kids off physical activity for life.

OTOH to put things into perspective, far more people these days die or become disabled as a result of being too sedentary than from tackling in rugby (certainly I would be at much more risk for the former!). It seems like an odd thing to get totally focused on.