Anyone get their child out of playing rugby? (head injury concern)

Calm down- as pp have said it’s more than likely it won’t be a problem. DS was at a top Rugby school and never played once- different Games steams.

Yes head injuries are a risk at professional level. Nothing like that at school level. My personal experience with a club rugby playing child who's been playing contact for several seasons now, is that there's never been so much as an ambulance called across all the kids age groups, let alone air ambulance. Also, rugby is a lot safer for kids now than it was a generation ago due to rule changes by the RFU.

Now, the football club over the road is a different matter by the way. Anecdotally, there's where all the broken legs and arms have come from in my children's classes.....

As others say, depends on the school. If it's an important sport to the school I think you'll make his life very hard. And there's been no discussion of all the benefits of rugby, of which there's many.

My concern actually would be, if they're teaching rugby they need to be teaching it properly. If it's a school that's really into it, they will be. If they dabble, I personally think that's where the risk is.

@BarqsHasBite I understand your concerns but in private schools rugby is generally the priority sport during Michealmas term. Asking for him to be excused could possibly single him out. Private schools are often the pathway to professional rugby playing so they are generally full contact/tackling from Yr 7. DDs school there are other sport options 3 days a week but the other 3 days are rugby for boys and they are all expected to represent their school and take part in inter-school matches . I'm not saying it's right but that's the culture.
Definitely ask the scholl what their policy is and what alternatives he would have.

I think you must live where I live - my BIL plays for the same club - it’s been a huge shock (although not the hugest shock as Rugby is such a dangerous sport). My sister now doesn’t want him playing in another up and coming match.

I have one rugby loving ds, and one who hates even picking up a muddy ball. Both went to rugby playing state schools.

At DS2's school, he "played " for a half term. They then set the groups and he basically never played again. They played Frisbee instead.

They certainly didn't force a child to tackle etc. Talk to the school, see what their policy is.

DS had more injuries playing soccer than rugby. If you do manage to withdraw him from rugby you are setting him up to being bullied.

Difficult. I see where you're coming from-but I don't think I'd like to be the boy "excused rugby" particularly in a private school.

I went to a rough school in a rugby obsessed country. There were so many dreadful spinal injuries - and we lived in a city that had a spinal unit and you could hear the whir above as stricken rugby players were transported to the specialist spinal unit - that eventually my school could not field a rugby team. Parents, and I think the boys concerned, were not just not prepared to take the risk. I advise you to tell them that your son has only one kidney and that medical advice is that they should not participate in contact sports. I do have a friend in that position and her son has never been allowed to participate in rugby or martial arts for that reason.

In my sons’ private school, they now delay the start of contact rugby. They also use the Return2Play service, where any head impact at all means you are off on concussion watch for 2 weeks and then a gradual return, with online interviews with a doctor at each step. The head injuries can be from school or other sports - my son has been signed off 3 times from
hockey injuries.

There are rugby, hockey and cricket terms in the early years. However, boys are free to only do rugby in games and not do evening training and weekend matches. I suspect matches are the riskiest.

Whether you could pull a boy out altogether, I don’t know. But they have got much more cautious.

All schools are different and the only way of knowing is to ask. He won't be qlone - there are always loads off injured during rugby season!

Even in a rugby school there will be non-sporty boys. They find each other.

However, it isn't as simple as he could just go to the library. We need to know where students (especially the younger ones) are and they need supervision.

Our school get you to sign a form to state they can play contact. If not they just play touch. Ask the school their policy.

I'd talk to the school to find out their processes. Even if there's no choice in whi h sport to play, it may be like our school where they can choose tag rugby or contact. My son hates sports and violence so chooses tag.

Aren't the rules about kids rugby changing to make it safer? And I'm sure heading has been stopped in football.

Yep. My partner has all sorts of injuries caused by forced rugby. There’s no way I’d let my child play it.

I think it depends how important rugby is at the school. I've worked in a couple of schools that played rugby. In one it was just part of the PE rotation and wouldn't have been an issue at all to sit out. In the other it was the main sport and was totally in the DNA of the school. It was a Boys school and I think they should have been teased if they didn't want to play. They was 10 years ago mind so things might have changed.

I would say as a teacher that sometimes parents want things from a school which run counter to what the school actually wants to offer - for example at the school I currently work at we have parents who moan a lot that the school doesn't do a lot of swimming. We don't have a swimming pool and there are other private schools in the area that do - I think you need to pick a school that offers what you actually want rather than one that doesn't and then try and alter it when you get there.

I think it's worth finding out what the school actually do rather than what their contract says. If they offer a range of sports each term and all of the pupils get a choice, then it shouldn't be an issue. If it is very much a rugby school and all of the boys do rugby one term, then it is more of an issue to manage.

Jesus wept.

My son played American football and was sidelined for over a week with a concussion he sustained in a tackle - while wearing a helmet. He had to recline on the couch all day every day until he got the all clear from the doctor, and could listen to one half hour of radio daily, no reading, no TV or screens, and could only do absolutely necessary walking and stair climbing.

It's gut-wrenching to see your boy look a doctornstraight in the eye and miss four numbers while counting to twenty, and two months when reciting the months of the year.

That was the end of football for him. He took up swimming instead.

Ask the school for their position.

It's increasingly common for parents to request no rugby or for schools to play tag rugby in lessons.

Our children simply never joined the rugby section of PE lessons, school didn't have any issue. If they could do no other sport at the same time (which is what usually happened) they helped the teacher.

It's not over protective to avoid brain damage!

This is just total Cope. Rugby has a horrendous rate of injury at school level. It’s something like 80% likelihood that a child will had an injury during each rugby season.

I come from a family where all the men nurse injuries to knees/shoulders/collar bones decades after leaving the sport. It wasn’t worth it.

In lots of ways I am no great shakes as a parent. But at least I am not sending my 11yo DS onto the rugby pitch after a concussion the week before.But plenty do.

@JustAMinutePleass less likely to break their neck I would have thought from cricket

Luckily DS had a medical issue from Y8 that stopped him playing rugby (also luckily the medical issue didn’t really impact him in any other way). Could have kissed the consultant when he told us DS shouldn’t play contact sport like rugby anymore.

To be fair DS’s school were becoming slightly more enlightened than other schools and were beginning to allow boys who didn’t want to play to go to the gym or do another sport, by the time DS was in about Y10. I think with all the medical knowledge now schools would be on sticky ground if they insisted boys had to play rugby.

Rugby is the one sport I will never permit DS to play. DH’s friend (30s) was hospitalised with a broken neck from playing rugby. Spent months in a ward wearing a contraption on his head, being fed through a straw. Thankfully he recovered, but was told he could easily have been paralysed. He’s been advised to avoid any contact sports or hard impacts in future because his neck is weak and he’s at high risk of paralysis. I don’t think it’s overprotective - rugby is dangerous.

Every sport has the possibility of a head injury. At DS’ private school more children have been hospitalised due to cricket and tennis related head injuries than anything else.