To think sport comes with an element of danger (Rugby)

[DadKeepsCalm1]

In the news today, a group of 70 doctors have written to the government to make rugby a non contact sport at high school.

Although a rougher sport, it really is not that dangerous with the proper equipment and professional supervision.

Also how are we supposed to find new talent, if people are not trained to play proper rugby.

My dss is 16 and plays rugby for his school and its by far my favourite sport. I love watching him play and it would be ashame if the game was spoiled.

[seventhgonickname]

My daughter is in great 8 and the girls are now playing rugby in PE. She hates it but there is no choice. 3 girls had minor injuries today and dd couldn't do swimming of netball last week (sports she enjoys) because she hurt her knees when being tackled. I find myself hoping it will rain as the sports teachers seem to move sport indoors then.

[PennyDropt]

DS played for the local team under 16s. He was playing well one day scored a try then a near try then he had his eye gouged in a tackle (several players piled in so hard to pinpoint the culprit). He had to stand on the lines after that as he couldn't see and the eye was painful and watering.
A deliberate foul but treated as an accident.
He was better by the next day but it demonstrates what can go on.

[roguedad]

I think compulsory full-on rugby should be banned in both state and private schools, and only allowed for kids who have provided a genuinely informed consent. "Choosing" a school where it is played is not remotely consent as we are forced to pick schools under all kinds of constraints. What age a kid can give informed consent is a matter for others more competent than me I think. We do all kinds of risky things through choice and denying that choice is not, in my view, the right way forward. I think any compulsion to play this particularly violent game is ghastly, and as just remarked, there are no permission slips. In some respects I agree with Prof Pollack - violence is built into the game; the rugby authorities have been negligent in their collection of injury data. Also, the appointment of a total thug to be England captain is an utter disaster. I've moved my son from a school where playing rugby was expected to one where it is one of many sports choices, and he now looks forward to his sports sessions of swimming and athletics. My FIL was a school doctor in a school that was obsessed with it and only changed their management of it after a boy was paralysed in a scrum. My son now has friends who have been hospitalised following injuries. I send my kids to school to be educated, not to be put at risk of head and spinal injuries.

[BerylStreep]

I'm pretty amazed that with all the parental permission slips we get home about going on school trips, even walking across the road to do rehearsals at the church beside the school, that there doesn't need to be express permission from the parents for children to take part in contact sports at school.

[Quillered]

Friend of a friend has just been very seriously injured playing local club rugby - paralysed from the neck down.
We hear that story too often.

[maydancer]

But verbena and Beryl , you are missing the point! Rugby is compulsory in most schools where it is played.As a parent you do not have the option, or the right, to opt your DC out!

[ErgonomicallyUnsound]

Ben Robinson's mother sums it up well:
"You take away that fancy name, 'rugby'," she says, "and you have got a group of 30 boys slamming and banging off each other for 80 minutes. In the street, at what stage are you going to say: 'Sort that out, somebody is going to get hurt?' But you put the ball in, and you call it sport."

These days, with players stronger, bigger, heavier and the blows being that much greater, and with the vast differential in size between some Y7-9 boys, it is just no longer a safe option for a compulsory school sport, in its current format.

[JC22334]

Keep rugby!

[Bambambini]

Not all sport carries the same risk. We are a sporty family. Risk wise, I do scuba and skiing (and other less dangerous sports) and recognise that these sports carry more risk and possible injury and death - I'm an adult though.

My son has taken up rugby at 12 I'm worried. I looked up the injury stats and they don't make me feel better. He also plays tennis. I worry more about the rugby.

[BerylStreep]

After Ben Robinson's death I will certainly be refusing parental permission for my son to play rugby at school. Fortunately, at DS's school, they have loads of sports to choose from.

[BarbarianMum]

I think our choice is 1. Our catchment school 2. A failing school 10 miles away -everything is full you see. Consequently, telling parents that they have a "choice" where they send their dc and therefore have to suck it up is nonsense.

[Mistigri]

"Choice" is often an illusion when it comes to schools. In England, you get a state a preference. The LA allocates places. Where I live, there is almost no choice at all.

I just kept my son off school for the martial arts module I was unhappy with.

[Mide7]

Surely you are consenting by sending your child to a school that plays rugby?

I also don't understand why you're saying it doesn't comply with that UN convention statement

[Verbena37]

Oh and my DS, who is just turned 11 and off to secondary this year, weighs just over 4 stone. Compare that to some of others in his year who are possibly up towards 8 stone and who play rugby outside of school and you have a recipe for relly bad injuries. DS is extremely placid and has HF autism. He doesn't being touched or touching other people. I'm hoping from a SEN point of view in particular, they will agree he doesn't play rugby.

[Verbena37]

Maydancer PE is compulsory, yes but not a collision sport that doesn't comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which states:

Article 19 of the Convention states that state parties must "take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence"

I will be telling my DS school, if they play contact rugby, that neither he or I give consent to him playing rugby. The is no ther team school sport which puts children at such high risk (1/6) of having an injury than contact rugby and which in many schools, isn't taught by qualified coaches.

[PigletJohn]

I was toying with the reaction if the thread had been titled:

"To think school comes with an element of danger"

The odd broken limb, cumulative brain damage, but they've cut down on paralysis due to the broken necks now.

[maydancer]

Unless my ds really wants to play ruby I will tell the school his not to partake in it

Thing is, you won't get the choice to withdraw him.If PE is rugby, he'll have to play

[Chattymummyhere]

Unless my ds really wants to play ruby I will tell the school his not to partake in it. Dh suffered injury during school forced ruby which still affects him now and I also know a man who lost a testicle though it from a bad tackle.

Most pe teachers are not qualified in ruby and I wouldn't send my children to be tought horse riding or para shooting by someone who isn't qualified.

[larrygrylls]

16

[larrygrylls]

I am a fan of rugby and think that, if well taught, the risks can be mitigated.

I was told, though, that school rugby is especially dangerous due to different rates kids develop. So you may get a 15 stone 15 year old vs a 9 stone 15 year old.

Not sure what the solution is. Weight rather than age categories up to 26?

[maydancer]

Rugby carries a higher risk of serious injury than other sports played in schools.Some risks can be reduced by well trained coaches/teachers, but a certain level of risk is intrinsic to the sport.
I think it is unethical to force a child to be exposed to this risk without his and his parents' consent.
So in a nutshell I agree that rugby should not be compulsory in schools

[prettybird]

I totally agree with you TheChimpParadox.

With the exception of mouthguards (which are compulsory) we actively discourage body armour/padding.

John Beattie wrote a good article a while back about padding/protection giving a false sense of invincibility.

[TheChimpParadox]

Not sure what people want or mean as regards protective equipment in terms of rugby.

With the exception of a mouth guard there is no ' protective ' equipment ( which is not compulsory but most clubs and schools will insist on it )

Scrum caps will not prevent concussion - they may prevent minor abrasions. The over use of what people deem ' protective ' equipment in rugby can be just as dangerous as children are given a false impression of what it 'prevents'.

[prettybird]

I agree about safety equipment (I'd already mentioned why I was against body armour in rugby): I think one of the reasons why dh had a higher top speed is that I always hold off "letting go" in a schuss - a result of the time, well over 20 years ago, when I caught an edge and flipped backwards, hitting the back of my head and giving myself whiplash. I might be more "temeraire" (the French word seems more fitting) if I were wearing a helmet.