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

[BarqsHasBite]

Just that really - am determined that when my son moves to secondary (we are hoping to send him to an independent school) that he does not play any contact rugby, or head the ball in football though that’s less of an issue as he can just not head when he’s playing.

Has anyone tried to get their child out of playing rugby for the same reason? I’m sure someone told me that some schools have it in the parental contract that the boys will play rugby and it’s a condition of accepting a place at the school 😱

If I get pushback am hoping to find a neurologist to advise against playing rugby - is the school really going to insist on going against medical advice?
But interested to know if anyone has any experience of this.

Gosh, having read all these posts, i am not surprised you don't allow your children to play rugby.

Did the introduction of seatbelts, child car seats and other "new" safety measures make you more alarmed about what they are designed to prevent as well?

Ds has just started at an independent secondary which thankfully is phasing rugby out - older years are still playing, but year 7s (and 8) do not. There has recently been some moaning in the parents WhatsApp about this, but I hope the school hold firm. Ds will not be playing, in any case.

we withdrew ds from contact rugby at his prep, and he was not the only one not participating - about a third of the boys didn’t play contact rugby. One thing to watch out for is overly zealous games teachers - more than once we had to remind the school that under no circumstances was ds to play contact rugby, as per previous (written) instruction, as the games teacher had a fondness for asking the boys whether they wanted to play contact or tag. In some circumstances this could be hard for a boy to stand strong, but thankfully ds was with a good cohort of friends who also felt the same as he did, and all of whom were more than thankful to escape the horrors of contact rugby. But worth keeping an eye on, especially at secondary age.

Mine are at a boys' prep that plays rugby and DS is about to start contact, having previously played touch. I'm told tackling is very much diluted now at schoolboy level. It's also very noticeable to me having watched the senior boys (Year 7/8) play over the last few years, that the A /B teams try very, very hard and the C/D teams are pretty slow and light touch .... in some games I've seen they've barely touched each other! So D team might be the way forward!
I am in no way minimising the worry, but I also happen to have seen a lot of broken bones from football at our school and amongst friends and none from rugby ...yet. I can only assume it's because they're taught how to tackle and fall in rugby and when it happens in football it's usually due to illegal tackling / fouling.

Seatbelts and other car safety measures are designed to prevent serious harm.

This is quite different from a protocol that effectively says “If your child sustains a serious head injury/possible permanent brain damage, don’t worry, because we’ll make sure they’re closely monitored and aren’t allowed back on the rugby pitch to sustain further head injuries until a doctor says it’s ok!!”

That is alarming in its own right and also does very little to address the fact that the effects of repeated concussions may not be apparent for decades (see above reports re Alzheimer’s/Parkinson's etc).

So they’re really not comparable are they?

I would raise it with the school before they start. Our boys go to a rugby playing private school and it is a big thing for social groups and also main sport played in the autumn term for boys in year 3 upwards and girls in spring term from year 3.

I know that the parents (both neurologists) have stopped their girls from playing from year 7 onwards.

If we were against rugby or the boys were then we wouldn't have put the boys in for secondary.

@BarqsHasBite the concussion protocol errs very much on the side of caution. Any symptom at all - headache etc - and you are not allowed to do anything for 7 days and then light exercise for the next 7 days.

Not many boys on concussion protocol will actually have concussion. The purpose of the gradual return to play is to avoid sequential head injuries, which is the thing that causes issues for professional players.

Again, my son has been on the protocol twice from hockey impacts, as he gave up rugby when he had the choice for hockey, which he prefers.

Has anyone got any recently published research or articles about the dangers that I could use when I approach the children’s school about this please? A lot of the ones listed previously are very old and I’m worried they won’t wash!

theconversation.com/school-rugby-should-not-be-compulsory-and-tackling-needs-to-be-outlawed-heres-the-evidence-196993

@Mum1976Mum might be some newer stuff in here from 2023.

Mine all play rugby and no bias here either way. Don't think scared kids should be made to play tbh.

You have to scroll down but this is the archived version of a Telegraph article reporting on a study from last year:

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Frugby-union%2F2022%2F07%2F26%2Frugby-related-head-injuries-carry-similar-threat-childrens-health%2F

….
“The most alarming part of the new study, conducted by 13 academic institutions, including Oxford Brookes University, says that children should be protected from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the way they are from “lead, mercury, smoking, and sunburns”.
It also reveals that the brain banks of the US Department of Defence, Boston University-US Department of Veterans Affairs and Mayo Clinic have all published independent studies showing that contact-sport athletes were at least 68 times more likely to develop CTE than those who did not play any contact sport.”

It is insane. I distantly know someone who had a similar incident and never really recovered. Was on track for a top Uni, but flunked A levels and then dropped out of another, etc. I don’t understand how these injuries are accepted. I did Sport to a high level and DC is heading into county level sport. Everything is about injury prevention in most sports.

I got my kid out of playing rugby because they are extremely short sighted and at risk of retinal detachment if they got even a mild concussion. The optometrist wrote me a note and the school accepted it. The school had its own gym so my DS would go do a work out on the machines with other excused DC.

I got my son out of playing rugby (state school). Luckily, in my case, it was enough just to write a detailed email. He and a few other boys played handball during PE.

Thanks for posting this! My son's school has rugby (unfortunately all the schools close to us has this for one term). Although he is not sporty (he would rather read a book naturally) he is feeling the pressure to do the contact rugby. I am really worried now and will be giving a written note and also speak to his sport teacher that he won't be doing the contact one. He has also been diagnosed with a flat feet and struggles with many things like cross country (still waiting for orthotics appointment) so it's going to be many days in the library for him.

We are in a good state secondary. My son plays football for the school but not rugby. It's just the rugby team that plays. I don't know about PE. My youngest plays touch rugby but I will get him out of it before it becomes contact rugby.

We have stopped our 2DS playing rugby at prep school and senior school. We said we were concerned about the injuries. They weren't very pleased, but have followed our wishes. The older one has other options he can do at school. The younger one misses sport during the rugby season, but can either do extra swimming or go to the library.

I know we are quite unusual at our sons prep school, but I understand that this is increasingly common.

OP, we feel very strongly about it and were just very clear with school that we didn't want them to play. The first year the prep school called us several times explaining how safe it was etc, etc, but we just re-iterated our opposition. I later heard that they were concerned that we were going to whip up other parents. We haven't and we've just said that we're not a playing family.

Let us know how you get on!

Quite a few schools now offer alternatives; DS loathed rugby from the start and has done sailing for the last 3 years. The school I work in also offers alternatives. Rugby isn't for everyone - I can't imagine any sport less appealing, myself!

Thanks @Porridgewithnuts, I’m glad you were successful despite the school’s grumbling. It’s interesting that one of the schools main concerns was apparently that you’d try to stir up other parents (they no doubt feared they’d be left without a team!). I will stress in any discussions with the school that I respect other parents’ decisions but that as a family we are not happy with the risk.

I emailed the school today but of course they have just broken up for half term so I won’t hear anything until next month I suspect.

DS school had rugby as part of PE rotation in lower school (years 7-9). DS was competing nationally at another sport then and winter/spring was the main competition season. Even a finger injury could have taken him out for that year so we withdrew any permission for any contact sport. The school were fine with it, the PE dept worked hard to dissuade us but understood it was risky, and he was either put into a different rotation or given something else to do.

I’m really pleased to read this post and the comments. My DS has just started secondary, a state school and I’m not sure of their view on rugby but they’re not an especially sporty school - he is doing dance once a fortnight currently, which I have tried to motivate him to do (he hates it!) as it’ll be good training for his footwork at football. He loves football, but isn’t very good and hates tackling and being tackled. The idea of him doing contact rugby horrifies me and I’m glad to hear that my concerns are not unfounded. I will be finding out what the school’s stance on contact rugby is and removing him from it if needs be.
I might hold off for a bit though as my son is AuDHD and I’ve been in touch with the school so much in the past 6 weeks that they could probably do with a break from me!

It is quite heartening reading this thread that so many people feel the same way and won’t be encouraging their Dads to play.

It’s genuinely bizarre how blind to the risks some parents are. It’s like they’ve been socially conditioned to accept their child’s broken bones.

My sons both play rugby. They were introduced to the sport at their grammar school. Can think of only one time throughout their years where a child had to go to hospital. Three of the boys from their school have played for England and one is in semi with South Africa on Sunday.
My son’s godfather is an ex Wales player and he is definitely intact in his 50s .
Only child I know that has been disabled was a skater and a football player.

I remember when DS was a baby we had to take him into A&E one Saturday afternoon, there were so many young lads being brought in and the rugby mums were comparing their children’s injuries! Adults too, one of whom was on the gas and air as his foot was pointing in the wrong direction 😱

Perhaps the NHS should bill the schools for the injuries.

That's a good idea.