To steer DS away from rugby?

[Oldjumper]

DS is 10 and plays contact rugby for local club.
He loves it and is good-fast, strategic and tackles well.
But he is the smallest in his team and when up against big lads from other teams I worry he will get very hurt. They don’t put them in positions for another couple of years so he can easily be up against someone twice his size and he will go in for the tackle regardless of the size of his opponent.

On the other hand it’s great exercise and the teamwork is incredible. It comes with a good social life (although I also worry about the excessive alcohol culture in a few years time!)

Especially with the sad news stories about Doddie Weir & Rob Burrows and the increase in the chance of neurological issues in rugby players (albeit professional ones not junior club players!). It makes me wonder if I am doing the right thing in encouraging him and whether I should steer him towards concentrating on his other sports.

the sport which, especially for league in some areas, fulfils a very important community role for low cost. I'm sure union is the same for other localities also, although being traditionally for the more affluent, may not be the only option or such a lifeline. See also boxing

Agree about both rugby and boxing. Rugby, at least, has the potential to reform and to reduce risk massively - as it did with spinal injury in the 80s/90s. Yes, it will change the game, but it's that or die, as more parents become aware of the potential harms.

That's why I used the Hawking example , although I may not have made my point very well. Very, very few CTE sufferers have no history of brain trauma, while there are plenty of MND sufferers who have never had head trauma. This makes a direct causal link much harder to prove.

Thank you for your reasoned response, we didn't get into a pointless ding dong! Me and my husband cry every time we see Rob on TV or are at an event he's attending. He was such an inspirational athlete, with incredible speed, balance and strength - all accompanied by a fantastic attitude and ethos.

They’ve stopped the heavy scrum training in professional rugby, my boys both do rugby, 4yr old and 8yr old. Coaches said the head gear doesn’t help anything except cauliflower ears.

Yeah, head gear doesn’t help, because the primary cause of injury is usually the head hitting the inside of the skull. Head protectors probably prevent the odd skull fracture, but skull fractures themselves are not usually dangerous - it’s the brain injury that is the concern.

It is so sad - he seems like a lovely guy.

YANBU
I'm very relieved both my children hate rugby

The main issue for the rugby codes when it comes to brain injury is they are getting more dangerous to play not less. Football it’s the opposite trend as the balls are much lighter than the rocks they used to have to head, plus they head the ball far less (in training its minuscule in comparison to the heading sessions they used to have).

On average a player will suffer a concussion every 25 games in RU. That soon adds up.

Older players (pre 1995 before the pro era) have had less issue with brain trauma. With their much smaller/slimmer physique their collisions were far less impactful. It’s the bigger younger players where dementia and other brain conditions have been ramped up.

JPR Williams (Welsh player from the 1970s, when players were more regular sized blokes) says his team would get smashed by the Welsh team of today:

www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-2103088/Six-Nations-2012-JPR-Williams--Welsh-giants-smashed-Grand-Slam-heroes.html

Rugby players on average now weigh 14kg more than they did 25 years ago:

www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/rugby-union/six-nations-2020-how-have-players-grown-size-past-25-years-and-who-heaviest-player-tournament-3020300

Steve Thompson, 2003 Rugby Union World Cup winner, can’t remember any of the final. And just in his size, he was huge, which is indicative of the transformation in physique.

The emphasis with the rugby codes is punishment via gym work, downing protein shakes, and building up your body for the collisions. The emphasis in football is enjoying yourself by getting out a ball and kicking it about.

@RLScott I’ve just looked up Steve Thompson. Apparently he says he would not want his son to take up rugby.

Honestly, that would be enough for me. He would know more about it than anyone commenting on here so I’d take his advice.

Also there’s just the fact that we don’t know much about brain injuries / hits to the head causing dementia and other neurological problems years down the line.. how serious the injury has to be, what kind of contact could be considered “safe” etc … things that were considered safe seem no longer to be. The research is moving very fast.

We've stopped our DS age 12 playing. He stopped last year. There are many sports that he loves playing including football, hockey and cricket as well as athletics.

Someone upthread suggested boys were going to be bullied as their mother wouldn't let them play. My DS has had no trouble and I can't imagine that happening. He's an athletic boy who loves sport, but who just doesn't play rugby.

Also totally agree with the university / rugby comment too!

Completely not denying the connection between rugby and CTE etc but what else will we discover is bad?
I did a lot of gymnastics & trampolining-surely all that rotation and motion can’t be great? Diving?-they look like their head smashes the water at quite a pace.

There must be a balance between living a healthy and fulfilling life and doing as much as possible to prevent damage in later life.

The injuries can be horrendous. I don’t think I’d be encouraging rugby I have to say.

Gymnastics is a great example of a sport that changed radically at elite level, due to safety concerns (eating disorders/delayed puberty), and is all the better for it. Current elite female gymnasts are so much healthier than their 80s counterparts, who were competing in adult competitions from their early teens. There was a lot of hand-wringing about how raising the minimum age would ruin the sport, but it's never been stronger. Of course, the changes haven't eliminated eating disorders and body pressures, but they have made many girls safer.

There is risk with all sports, but risks can be mitigated. Rugby needs to change. I bet the posters on here, who say that we should accept the risks of the game in its current form, wouldn't dream of driving their DC without a seat-belt on. Yet the risk of a serious injury as a car passenger, even without a seat-belt, is pretty miniscule for any given journey. But we still wear them because it's not worth taking a risk that is easily avoidable. No one has to play rugby. There are plenty of safer sports that offer as much fun and challenge. If the rugby authorities want their game to survive, they need to step up and make it safer.