to not let DC play rugby

[NoRugbyMom]

Rugby is a big thing where we live. Kids play it at school and the local club puts on events at school to encourage new players. A lot of my DC’s friends and classmates already go. It is non contact at the moment but that will change as they grow.

Having read about professional players developing MND, dementia etc I don’t want my DC to play. I know improvements have been made to how the game is played and the way injuries are treated but there are still risks.

DC would like to go because all he friends do but I have managed to make excuses so far and encourage other sports.

AIBU to not let DC play rugby?

My daughter played rugby at a good level. Precautions were quite tight and justifiably so. As with all safety decisions I think you have to look for balance. Rugby was very empowering for my daughter and she gained huge confidence from doing it. The health benefits are also significant. If rugby is not acceptable then what about football? It is also associated with dementia and other contact sports such as hockey and (the roughest of all for women in my experience) Lacrosse? I think you are right to be a little cautious but you do have to ask what they will miss out on as well.

All sports carry some risks, statistics as with anything can be skewed and interpreted as to which side of the fence you are on.
I have no idea of the numbers involved but I don't think its helpful to say x% of people with this disease played rugby. It needs to be the other way around x% of rugby players go on to develop this disease.

I was glad my two didn't choose Rugby. The ones that did missed so much school from injuries. There used to be someone else with a broken collar bone every week, always someone off for physiotherapy following some bone break.

All sports carry a risk.

my DS doesn’t currently play rugby because I won’t allow him to play under the coach who coaches his age locally. The man is dangerous.
He did used to play and I’ve no doubt he will again. He plays at school.

It needs to be the other way around x% of rugby players go on to develop this disease

I agree with this. It’s a much more realistic, and reasonable, way to look at it.

There have been a number of significant rule changes in rugby aimed to address the head injury aspect. Interestingly they are now being adopted in professional football. There are probably just as many head to head contacts in football but because body contact is not an aspect of the game they go unnoticed.
Full contact doesn’t happen until U15/16 and even then there are still elements of the adult game that are not allowed. Unlike football where they play the same rules as the adult game.
My DS has played rugby since age 6 and has had a couple of bangs to the head but no more than in general play in the play ground. At junior school he would have a yellow slip most weeks informing us he’d bashed heads with someone in the playground.
Coaching nowadays is focused on minimising head injuries, if they do suffer a concussion there is a strict two week no contact rule.
The ex rugby players now making the news played 20yrs ago when rugby was quite a different game. They were also professional players.
DS plays for school and now he is 17/18 they are not allowed to play Sat and Sun so does not play club rugby until later in the season when the school season is over. They have only small sessions of contact training during the week.
Although it looks brutal most of the contact is away from the head. The time they are at risk is during line outs when they are lifted in the air and running into tackles ( it’s complicated to explain but it’s generally when they are not well drilled in tackling technique) many of the old styles of tackling that would put them at risk are now illegal resulting in penalties and sending off.
The benefits are tremendous for boys who enjoy physical sports. It’s like gang warfare without weapons. But off the field they may be best of friends with the opposition.There is a tremendous sense of belonging and as another poster mention no size or shape is excluded.
I think I am most impressed by how much respect they give the match officials. Only the captain can approach the ref. They have to be addressed as Sir or Miss ( there are plenty of women refs at club level) and the refs word is law. And you can be sent off for dissent even if you mutter under your breath. Repeated dangerous play is penalised so the player actually learns by his mistakes.
As you can gather I’m a rugby mum, who like you was very reluctant at first but watching my son build in confidence and dedicate himself to his sport has been great. He socialises with similar boys at school who take sport seriously. Drug taking is just not part of their culture and DS has strong views on it. Unfortunately they do like a beer or two. When out and about they look after each other. As DS says they are family and that includes anyone he knows through rugby.

I am in the rugby mecca New Zealand, and where I am in the country grassroots rugby is decreasing here, parents are much more apprehensive on letting their kids play rugby and they are picking up other sports. Granted its a lot less dangerous than what it was 10+ years ago as they have tightened up the rules but at the end of the day you still have tackles, line outs etc. The amount of concusions I have heard over the years from kids playing rugby is unbelievable.

Touch rugby is massive here for the girls which I think is quite empowering, its safe (no contact) and suits those who dont want to play what are peceived to be the more feminine sports (netball etc)

Non contact is absolutely fine, but otherwise it’s a no from me and I say this as a mum who watched her son play rugby until Upper 6th. My heart was in my mouth during every game. I hated the fact there was an ambulance and paramedics on stand by as the level of risk was so high. Other sports do carry risk, but if Rugby were invented as a new game it would not pass a risk assessment. Instead of saying concussion use the correct term - traumatic brain injury. People need to stop downplaying “mild concussion’”. You are absolutely right to have reservations and concerns.

Rugby tackling starts from Year 8 onwards at our state school, i believe. I think they hg ave to tackle below armpit level now, but i am not sure it saves a lot of injuries. I saw a kid whose face had collided with someone else's rugby studs the other day. He needed several stitches to thr face.

.. And you cannot choose ti withdraw your child from a games lesson you dont like

Thanks for this conversation, I was looking for something specifically along these lines re teen playing rugby at school, to find out whether my concerns were justified. Has anyone heard of or tried this? Seems like a logical idea to me - www.rezonwear.com/

My three children all played rugby - and have all had their fair share of injuries, none of which were rugby specific - snapped ankle ligaments, dislocated shoulder, broken collarbone. All could have been done playing football or walking or falling down the stairs at home. Eldest now involved in coaching and at Mini and Junior Club level there is SO much protocol for return to play after head injury. DS2 snapped an ankle ligament going over on it during one match, stopped playing whilst at uni and never got back into it

DD plays semi professionally and has (so far) done ankle and shoulder ligaments, thumb ligaments and fractured collar bone. She's had two returns to play for knocks to the head in 10 years and both were what used to be called 'minor' ie no loss of consciousness, confusion, blurred vision etc but a literal knock to the head from a knee. Not allowed to train/raise heartrate for 2 weeks then gradual return to physical exercise before gradual return to play over 2/3 weeks after day 21. And it was seriously enforced.