Mobbs-Smith: Clubs have a duty of care as players return
Maidenhead RFC: Head coach says players must be careful upon returning to grassroot sports next week
David Mobbs-Smith has called on coaches to get serious about their duty of care for players and athletes as grassroots sports prepare to return next Monday.
Having been at various stages of the RFU’s return-to-rugby roadmap over the past 12 months, Maidenhead will finally be able to re-engage in training and activities from March 29, with the possibility of getting back into competitive action before too long.
However, due to the length of time players have had absent from any regular activity, they could potentially be susceptible to injury if they are not correctly eased back in.
While every sport will encounter its own challenges upon restarting, rugby will undoubtedly be at the highest risk of danger, according to Maidenhead RFC head coach Mobbs-Smith.
“Rugby clubs have to be very conscious of how we get our players back involved in what is a confrontational and clashing game,” said MobbsSmith.
“We’re talking about young men who haven’t shook somebody else’s hand for a year, now running in and smashing someone with their shoulder.
“There are a lot of bodies that have softened, and it’s no different to MMA or any of those sports where there is physical contact involved as opposed to accidental contact.
“The game of rugby has contact as part of the participation and most clubs have not done that in a year. They may have a little bit but nowhere near as much to where your body gets used to it, or how you manage it, how you fall in those environments.
“There is definitely a duty of care for every coach to try and make sure every player is well looked after. We need to make sure we can create a safe environment in what is a highly-contested and physical sport.”
To mitigate the risks of his players getting injured, or contracting COVID, Mobbs-Smith says Maids will have a ‘graduated’ return to the full game, starting with training at Stage D on the return-to-rugby roadmap.
He also hopes the majority of his players have followed the strength and conditioning programme the club put in place to maintain their fitness levels over lockdown.
“We will be back training from March 30. It will be at Stage D so there will be a very little amount of contact,” he said. “We’ve got a way to go to get our players ready for that.”
“Then, we will probably get involved in some Ready4Rugby against other clubs in May. That was the game the RFU devised before lockdown. It was a new version of touch that kept contact to a minimum.
“And finally, from the beginning of June, we will go into an adaptive version of contact. That’s the plan we have come up with and hopefully it will get us ready for a full return to the league in September.
“That’s our intention and for our players’ safety, the way to do it.”
Mobbs-Smith added: “The lads have been working on an S&C (strength and conditioning) programme.
“No doubt over the next few weeks, we’ll find out which guys have been working effectively and which haven’t.
“Naturally, there will be a difference between their initial performance but once we’re back as a squad, that gap will close quite quickly when we all train together.
“Some of our athletes require assistance or guidance and the others are able to do a lot of stuff on their own
“Overall, the lads are really looking forward to getting back together,
We’ve got good numbers up for those first training sessions.”