Time we ended the nonsense of 46 players on the pitch

IT IS high time rugby union rectified its woeful inability to end the game’s injury crisis threatening the sport’s future.

Before medical evidence revealed some players are suffering brain damage, World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont hailed rugby as “a leader in sport in the prevention and management of injury” while RFU CEO Bill Sweeney stated: “The game is as safe as it can be and getting safer.”

These deluded views have been exposed by the early dementia damages claim now backed by over 180 players and the tragic death of Siobham Cattigan revealing the inadequacies of existing concussion guidelines.

Rugby’s problem is today’s players and coaches are geared to collision-orientated phase rugby as the norm. And nobody matches the courage of those playing the game by enforcing crucial law changes that would attract widespread opposition.

Does anybody realise stopping tackled players handling the ball would enable the return of the ruck ending today’s breakdown mayhem?

As well as not enforcing important existing laws, World Rugby ignores the most obvious law change needed: namely returning rugby to a 15-player team sport by banning impact subs distorting the game’s vital skill/power balance

Ending the nonsense of 46 players able to take the field in a single game would make rugby not only safer but less complex and cheaper and easier to run with fewer coaches and players needed.

It would also leave players rather than coaches dictating the outcome of matches.

Ross Reyburn Author, Saving Rugby Union - The

Price of Professionalism