England turn to ‘mime’ approach in new bid to tackle safety concerns

ENGLAND coach Eddie Jones has adopted ‘mime training’ from American sport in an attempt to improve player safety.

Rugby is under pressure to find solutions to its crisis around head injuries, with the sport facing a legal class action from almost 200 players with dementia.

And Jones’s England captain, Courtney Lawes, has been forced to withdraw from this week’s training camp in Jersey because of concussion.

Dylan Hartley, the former England skipper, last week told The Mail on Sunday that administrators must find answers quickly, suggesting reducing the amount of contact training.

Jones has been sharing information with coaches from American football team the Green Bay Packers. There has been a heavy shift towards alternative training methods among sides in the National Football League, and in basketball’s NBA.

‘We have been looking at a little bit of the stuff in America,’ Jones said. ‘I was talking to NFL and NBA, where the amount of training time is being cut. One of the things they do in the NBA is mime training, where they are not allowed to talk. We will have a go at that. It is the eye contact, being able to understand each other’s body language.

‘Every sport is being modified in the physical load you can do. In cricket, the fast bowlers don’t bowl as much, do they? There’s greater welfare care in every sport and so the amount of physical training you can do is being lessened.’

Hartley called for mandatory brain scans to be introduced for players. ‘I see Dylan now and again and have a few informal conversations,’ added Jones.

‘Players must find their voice. As the game has gone professional, rugby players have maybe steered away from that a little bit.

‘World Rugby has been diligent. Rugby, because of the nature of the sport, is a physical collision game and we need to keep looking at how we make it safer, how we keep looking after the players better.’

Hartley explained last week how he had turned down the offer to join the class action against the sport. However, the 36-year-old wants to see better aftercare introduced for retired players — prompting a response from Mark Darbon, the chief executive at Hartley’s old club, Northampton.

Darbon said: ‘Dylan’s message on whether there is anything we can do locally to support some of our former players who are nursing injuries is, I think, an interesting concept.

‘I’ve told him we we’re certainly open-minded to the idea.’