A double one on Rugby

Or, no doubt, mountain biking, rock climbing, snowboarding, skiing, motocross, BMX, or anything else remotely fun.

I call BS on this!

My 10yo DS is really successful at rugby 🏉 it's an arena where he feels completely at home. He isn't judged. At school he feels the pressure (undergoing dyslexia screening) and knows he isn't top for everything. Reading is difficult for him, but rugby....he's like a different child.

And we didn't lead him into it. He came home with a slip from school that lunch time rugby classes were running and could he please go to it? I said that's fine, it may not be for you but see if you like it. Then he asked me to contact a rugby club to do training. So I did that at his request and two years later here we are....he absolutely loves it because he is treated with respect, as someone above has already pointed out as one of the values. His success with rugby is giving him confidence in other areas of his life.

I might consider advocating banning them.
😂

You do that, as if it will make any kind of difference to anything.

I am not researching the number of injuries, broken bones and head injuries in playgrounds and playparks for you, you can do it yourself.

Even inflatables have, sadly, records of casualties. So knock yourself out with advocating banning everything you don't agree with.

You are correct that any sport that involves rapid head movements including heading the ball in football causes serious damage to the brain resulting in later neurological disease including depression and suicidality. But no one is going to stop sport anytime soon because of money and vested interests. I am not sure where rugby sits on the scale of dangerous sports but I imagine it is less dangerous than boxing and American football.

OP, You lost any credibility I tried to give you, with your offensive comment (now deleted) on P2.

You haven't exactly redeemed yourself since.

YABVU.

I don't know why my ds loves rugby compared to the other sports he's tried, but he really does love it. We didn't encourage it, in fact we consciously tried to steer him in opposite directions. But he found rugby in high school and that was that.

He's fit, healthy, happy, confident right now.

I heard a radio show a while back where an a&e nurse was saying that the number of kids coming to a&e with broken bones has really reduced in recent years but the number of kids presenting at a&e with acute mental health crises has increased.

I'll take the definite wins right now over potential downsides in the future.

Which is not to dismiss the risks and the horrible prognosis for mnd in particular. We are aware of those, we've talked to ds about them, his club run a compulsory training session for both players and parents every year.

That's all we can do.

But if they do, they are trans men in the making, right? Because it’s unladylike.Which is what you said in your now-deleted comment.

It is tag rugby or touch rugby until U9, and they do not do scrums/lineouts etc until much later. There is the option to continue with non-contact after that if you don’t want the risks of contact.

Hell, there is even “walking rugby” for middle aged men with creaky knees who can’t manage 90 minutes of sprinting but still want to hang out with their rugby friends.

OP, you’ve been very clear that you don’t like sports and that you think it is unladylike for young girls to get muddy or sweaty or spoil their clothes. I think you have sadly misunderstood the demographic of mumsnet if you think many parents on here think that “behaviour unbecoming in a nice young lady” makes you transgender.

They deleted her post so they are aware of the thread.

rugby isn't inclusive of people who hate team sports or contact sports or getting muddy or the risk of a life-shortening brain injury

Then they don’t have to play rugby?

It’s a leisure activity that people can choose to play or not. If you don’t want your daughter to do it, ignore the ad and don’t send her to rugby lessons, much like you can ignore adverts for beer if you’re teetotal. It’s really not complicated.

Nothing is inclusive of people who simply don’t like that thing. ‘Not liking team sports’ or ‘being risk averse’ aren’t protected characteristics.

You’ll also be banning them from adventure playgrounds.

That's a good point, how are these still allowed? Councils and schools should ban them immediately.😂

But as it's harder to sneak in the trans issues in there, I am guessing it's of less interest for the OP

Yep, I mean to add that too my post as well. That blonde moptop!

I remember during the 07 world cup his wife had a tournament diary in one of the papers. She came across as a lovely down to earth lady and the opposite of the clothes horse footballers wags that were in vogue at the time. So sad for her and their sons too.

MND is primarily genetic. So no, not caused by playing rugby.

Rugby for young kids will be touch rugby anyway, not the full contact version.

If you want to ban kids from doing any sport that carries some risk of head injuries, you’ll also be banning them from football, gymnastics, cricket, hockey, martial arts, cycling, equestrian sports, skiing and ice skating to name but a few. You’ll also be banning them from adventure playgrounds.

I can’t stand rugby but you need to get a grip.

Rugby adapted for impairment is still rugby, it's not 'a disability form of rugby' or somehow less of a sport. You're starting to sound ableist now - is that what you intended? You were also wrong when you say that 'blind people don't play rugby' because they absolutely can and do, and I thought it was important to correct that because at best it's unhelpful to go around spouting factually inaccurate information and at worse it contributes to stereotypical assumptions made about people with registered disabilities.

I am on the fence about reporting this thread and the OP to MNHQ.

Having an opinion about rugby, who cares, the OP being offended about a sport is irrelevant.

A thread which is just an excuse to pretend all rugby players are "trans" just for playing rugby? That's offensive on so many levels.

Have you ever thought your children avoid any form of risk as they have picked up on your paranoia and wierd obsessions?

I do get slightly nervous about DD playing rugby.
I do get nervous about my other DD doing rock climbing.
But I can rationalise this with all the safety equipment and protocols.

My biggest fear is stupid drivers on phones and speeding near their school on their journey there and back.