UK study calls for tackle ban in schools

British schools should ban the tackle and other forms of ‘‘harmful contact’’ in rugby games to reduce the risk of injury, according to a group of British academics.

In an opinion piece published in the British Medical Journal, the academics argue that most injuries in youth rugby are caused by the game’s collision elements, especially the tackle.

Citing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Allyson Pollock and Graham Kirkwood called on Britain’s chief medical officers to ‘‘advise the UK government to put the interests of the child before the interests of corporate professional rugby unions and remove the tackle and other forms of harmful contact from the school game’’.

The call to ban tackling and scrums in youth rugby comes as the school’s tri-nations tournament between Australia, Fiji and New Zealand begins at Knox Grammar School in Sydney this week.

However, a leading Australian expert on sports injuries has cautioned against the ban.

Professor Caroline Finch, a director of the Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and Its Prevention at Federation University, said children need to be able to learn how to cope with accidental contact in games such as the rugby codes and Australian rules football.

‘‘There is no doubt there is a higher risk of injury to children and to everyone in sports that have body contact and collisions, and rugby is one of the football codes that does have that,’’ she said.

But Professor Finch said: ‘‘There’s a real danger that children aren’t taught ‘ What happens when you’re running along and someone collides with you? Children don’t start playing anything approaching adult rules and contact until after 16.’’

Former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons said he did not believe the ban would attract support.

‘‘All power to those who wish to make the game safer,’’ FitzSimons said. ’’But the simple fact is rugby without scrums and tackling is not rugby - it is touch.

‘‘It is not realistic to suddenly expose 18-year-olds with no experience at scrummaging or tackling to go up against experienced adults. If adopted, it would effectively, ultimately, end the game.’’

The call for a ban follows increasing concerns about the rate of concussions suffered by professional football players.

A 2013 study of sport-related concussion in Victoria found hospital admissions had increased by 60 per cent since 2002-03, with team ball sports - particularly the football codes - recording the highest numbers of brain injuries.

Pollock and Kirkwood, academics from the Institute of Health at Newcastle University, said removing collisions from school rugby is likely to ‘‘reduce and mitigate the risk of injury’’ in students.

They refer to previous research into youth injuries that indicate higher rates of injury for collision sports than for non-collision contact sports, with rugby, ice hockey and American football recording the highest concussion rates.

‘‘A history of concussion is associated with a lowering of a person’s life chances across a range of social and educational measures including receipt of disability pension, psychiatric inpatient admissions or outpatient visits, premature mortality, low educational achievement and receipt of state welfare payments,’’ they argue.