Child health fears trigger demand for ban on ‘harmful contact’ in school rugby
Former player fears game will ‘change completely’
Schools should ban “harmful contact” from rugby games, medical experts have said.
Tackles and scrums should be prohibited on school playing fields, according to Allyson Pollock and Graham Kirkwood of the Institute of Health at Newcastle University.
But their conclusion has been rejected by a former Scotland rugby internationalist, who says the move would take safety measures too far. Allan Jacobsen, who played 65 times for Scotland, said removing contact altogether would “change the sport completely”.
Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the academics said that most injuries in youth rugby occur due to the collision elements of the game. Removing collision from school rugby is likely to “reduce and mitigate the risk of injury” in pupils, they said.
They argue that a history of concussion is associated with the “lowering of a person’s life chances” across a number of measures including low educational achievement and premature death.
Meanwhile, a head injury is linked to an increased risk of dementia, they added. Citing previous research into sports injuries in youngsters, the pair argue that rugby, along with ice hockey and American football, have the highest concussion rates.
They said that rule changes in collision sports can “make a difference”, highlighting the Canadian ban on “body checking” – where a player deliberately makes contact with an opposing player – in ice hockey for under 13-year-olds.
The evidence for other strategies to reduce concussion risk in contact sport – such as mouth guards – is “weak”, the article adds.
And in the UK “teacher training in the skills of rugby are lacking, as is concussion awareness training,” the pair wrote.
The researchers called for “harmful contact” from the game at school level. In 2016, the nation’s most senior medics rejected a call for a ban on tackling in youth rugby. But Prof Pollock, who has been researching injuries and rugby injuries for more than ten years, and senior research associate Mr Kirkwood said that under United Nations conventions, governments have a “duty to protect children from risks of injury”.
However, former front row forward Jacobsen said he enjoyed the contact element of the sport at schoolboy level.
He added: “I certainly wouldn’t have got as much out of the game at a young age if the contact side of it had been removed.
“Obviously, making the game safer is hugely important and we want kids to enjoy the game in a safe way, but I got far more out of rugby than I got injuries and I think it would be a shame to see contact removed altogether.”
Commenting on the article, Professor Tara Spiresjones, UK Dementia Research Institute programme lead and deputy director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Very strong, reproducible evidence supports a greater risk of dementia in people who have head injuries in their lifetimes, which urges caution in games where there is a significant risk of head injury.
“However, the data on specifically whether playing rugby or other contact sports in school increases your risk of dementia are not as robust yet due to a lack of large prospective studies.
“I certainly wouldn’t have got as much out of the game at a young age if the contact side of it had been removed” ALLAN JACOBSEN
The game of rugby at elite level is unrecognisable when set against earlier eras. Players have become giants; physical specimens that would have seen today’s average-sized player considered a ‘freak’ in days gone by. And with that bulking up has come an increase in significant injuries.
Parents have worried about their children playing rugby since Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it, but in recent years, that anxiety has grown. As well as the evidence we see on TV, we’re also more aware than before of the injuries that take place in schoolboy rugby – injuries which may always have occurred, but are better publicised now.
It is no surprise that trauma experts now suggest the tackle and the scrum should be banned from school matches. This will certainly reduce the number and extent of injuries. But would it still be rugby?
Rugby is aware of its responsibility, and measures have been put in place to make the game safer than it has ever been at schoolboy level.
Every sport comes with risk, and rugby has its share of injuries. But we should not confuse elite sport with the thrilling game that has inspired children for over a century.