• Ban tackles and scrums from school rugby: British academics

    From morrisseybreen@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Fri May 11 22:40:21 2018
    Ban tackles and scrums from school rugby: British academics
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    British academics have called for scrums to be banned in school rugby.
    GETTY IMAGES
    British academics have called for scrums to be banned in school rugby.

    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 simple fact is rugby without scrums and tackling is not rugby - it is touch', says former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons.
    GETTY IMAGES
    "The simple fact is rugby without scrums and tackling is not rugby - it is touch', says former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons.

    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 on Thursday at Knox Grammar School in Sydney.

    READ MORE:
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    * Reason: As kids die, rugby looks away
    * Super Rugby concussions rise
    * Concussion's long term effects still unknown



    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?'"

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    "Children don't start playing anything approaching adult rules and contact until after 16," she added.

    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," he said. "But the simple fact is rugby without scrums and tackling is not rugby - it is touch.

    "And 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."

    Governments have a duty to protect children from risks of injury and to ensure the safety of children.

    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.

    Britain's senior medical officers previously rejected a call in 2016 for a ban on tackling in youth rugby.

    But Pollock and Kirkwood said "governments have a duty to protect children from risks of injury and to ensure the safety of children".

    They said a rule change introduced in Canada that banned contact in ice hockey played by children under 13 years had led to a reduction in concussion rates.

    "The evidence for other strategies to reduce concussion risk in sport including the wearing of protective equipment such as mouthguards is weak," they said.

    "The introduction of player education programmes in New Zealand and South African rugby was associated with a reduction in catastrophic injuries although not in other injuries including concussion."

    The call to ban "harmful contact" has been controversial, with some experts suggesting the science was inconclusive on whether playing contact sports such as rugby in school increased the risk of dementia.

    Brain injury expert Dr Alan Carson warned against measures that reduced participation in sport, telling the BBC: "The health crisis facing Britain's children is not concussion but obesity and lack of exercise."

    - Sydney Morning Herald


    And the winner is.... Football still number 1
    -1

    227 days ago
    Double Tap
    Probably better banning Academics from Rugby!
    0

    227 days ago
    Larry Courtney
    Larry
    every thing we do no matter what persons will get hert in some way so many accidents with persons looking at their mobile phones. many have died doing so and many other injuryies more than playing sport
    0

    227 days ago
    finsta
    Well if people still want to tackle they can always play league.
    The other alternative is to play touch rugby.

    Y'know, that game union players often play to upskill where each side gets 6 "tackles", the defending team has to retire to an advantage line after each "tackle" or they're offside and the person with the ball once "tackled" has to play the ball back
    through their legs to a dummy half.
    Great game, great origins.
    +1

    227 days ago
    Lapita
    What about ban eating animals all together...she is a joke.
    +1

    227 days ago
    TonyHolland.
    What next rainbow boots
    0

    227 days ago
    Trumpet909
    There is a game like that already. It's called football.
    +2

    227 days ago
    Club2
    And the British unions wonder why they can't beat us, despite having infinitely more resources...
    +3

    227 days ago
    Bruce2
    the only safe game that kids will be allowed to play is tiddly winks, as long as they wear safety glasses and a helmet. What we will end up with is kids not playing sports, just like kids no longer riding bikes... too many individuals pushing their
    beliefs onto others.
    +5

    227 days ago
    Andrew P Nichols
    Pathetic. Just brings academia into disrepute.
    +1

    227 days ago
    tank237
    Why doesn't the great professor go off and invent a game that doesn't have scrums, tackling and contactin it and see how popular that is. Ooh that's right someone already has. So go away professor and leave rugby alone.
    +1

    227 days ago
    AdamBomb
    Academics...enough said.
    0

    227 days ago
    National
    OMG should we just stop having children it maybe safer!
    +5

    227 days ago
    jwilliams88
    Will need special police units that go around parks looking for people who while having fun run into each other.
    +12

    227 days ago
    Notreal
    Allyson Pollock is a known fraud. She trots this out every year because her son got hurt once. And she routinely gets blasted by anyone who actually has a relevant degree.
    +20
    This comment has been deleted
    1 reply

    227 days ago
    SmileyFace
    ... and yet ACC says more injuries happen at home than anywhere *sigh*
    0

    227 days ago
    empire42
    Let's wrap them up in cotton wool??!?? Come on, we didn't have that issue when I was at school. We are becoming a Nanny State
    +5

    227 days ago
    Muppet
    Is this a Joke? What is next, solid foods to prevent choking?
    1 reply+11

    227 days ago
    SmileyFace
    I hope it's a joke
    0

    227 days ago
    DBEEA
    British academics, good on them, no wonder they don't do so good at sport they want to invent Rugby League, oh that's right it already has been invented.
    1 reply+2

    227 days ago
    finsta
    No way, league has far more tackling than union.
    A high individual tackle count in league is when someone makes 50 tackles.
    In union a high individual tackle count is 10.
    You can't make as many tackles in union as you can in league when in union the ball is in play for only about 30mins out of 80 compared to league's 70 out of 80.
    +2

    227 days ago
    bronco
    There is risk in any sport and can be managed through risk treatment. Not playing rugby, changing the rules or getting someone to play on their behalf are all great ways to avoid concussion. However, another option is to learn at an early age how to
    manage contact against a 30kg kid, then a 40kg, 50kg 60kg. Because if you decide to start when everyone is 80 - 120kg+ good luck on that journey.
    +1

    227 days ago
    scratchnsniff
    I believe they already have a game without all the ruff stuff, it's called soccer.
    5 replies+11

    227 days ago
    TomWilson
    And soccer probably actually has more head injuries than rugby because of the headers. May be England should ban soccer as well after all it would have spared them a lot of embarrassment and heartache every 4 years since 1966.
    4 replies+2

    227 days ago
    NuffSaid
    Similar to the ABs going a quarter of a century without winning the World Cup. +1

    227 days ago
    brucehall
    didn't nz go 7 rugby world cups without winning? that's embarrassing.....lol
    0

    227 days ago
    Donny Boy
    No bruce. It was 5.
    As opposed to 12 and counting.
    And Nuff, not sure how 24 and 51+ are similar.
    0

    227 days ago
    NuffSaid
    It's easy Donny Boy, football is a game with many more countries being competitive rather than just two or three, and for that reason no one expects England to win. I've lived in both countries and I definitely know who hurts more and who gets more
    embarrassed.
    0

    227 days ago
    Edward Pye
    We have a range of contact sports and a range of non-contact sports. Now that we have an increasing database of information on concussion and injury, parents are well-versed on the potential dangers of each sport, so they can choose appropriately. If the
    goal is to reduce the effects of concussion later in life then I don't know why there is a specific focus on rugby. We should regulate across all areas. I believe there was a study recently that showed riding a bike had a far higher concussion rate than
    rugby, so are we going to say that children can't ride bikes? There is a level of over-regulation here that is unnecessary and I think it's another reason that we need regulation thresholds.
    +1

    227 days ago
    Carlos79
    And what does that leave? Just lineouts?
    1 reply+5

    227 days ago
    SmileyFace
    Touch Rugby .... but without the touching
    +2

    227 days ago
    people
    About time too!
    1 reply-15

    227 days ago
    Didtooo
    I assume you're being facetious ;)
    +5

    227 days ago
    Daz79
    "Citing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child"...
    Wouldn't taking away from the choice of the child also be a direct contradiction of this right?

    +11

    227 days ago
    jimmynaki
    I love how kiwi kids can be rough and tumble. It shows on the international stage when we look to hold our own against the likes of Britain and Australia.
    +5

    227 days ago
    Whangape Hustler
    Anyone remember new image rugby? Made me quit union. Played league until full tackle age groups.
    +4

    227 days ago
    Viti. Starfala
    What the Hell? If they don't Enjoy the Sport, Don't watch or play it. I love Playing Rugby for those Exact Reasons. If you don't train well and condition your body correctly, you will be bound for Injuries. If the Kids ages were under 10 then fine. With
    there expected outcome people will soon be running around in cotton wool!
    +3

    227 days ago
    Mr Lindsay
    What these stories fail to mention is that Professor Aliyson Pollock had her precious son concussed and injured in a rugby game in 2007/08. Since then she has made it her life mission to ruin the sport of Rugby.
    Once you understand her agenda and realize there have been 10 years of cotton wool campaign then the article gets treated with in different way.
    +21

    227 days ago
    Colin Grigson
    As soon as an article says "academics say" I generally stop reading , because you know it's going to be pathetic
    2 replies+8

    227 days ago
    BKR
    "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
    1 reply-2

    227 days ago
    Colin Grigson
    Sorry, I'm too dumb to understand that quip
    0

    227 days ago
    Random
    Wrapping kids in cotton wool on the playground has had clear adverse effects on teenage/young adult risk taking and now they want to do it on the sports field too? They're never going to learn about risk and consequences. Proof that you don't actually
    need to be that smart to be considered an "academic" these days.
    +3

    227 days ago
    Johnny Shamrock
    Tennis balls for cricket and ban those dangerous squash balls!!?
    +2

    227 days ago
    commentreader1
    This is bound to stir a reaction. I'm guessing about 200 comments
    +2

    227 days ago
    xxross
    Yes. Lets coddle everything and everyone. Time to invest in bubblewrap.
    +5

    227 days ago
    onetime999
    ...the slow death of rugby...
    -1

    227 days ago
    Chris of Nelson
    Don't forget to man heading in soccer
    +5

    227 days ago
    PurPerson
    Obviously, safety is a priority, but doesn't that take away a main fundamental of Rugby?
    +5

    227 days ago
    Makavelli
    Wow......Just wow!
    +6

    227 days ago
    corgi566
    How about we just ban sport altogether. It is far too dangerous. While we are at it never let children outside. They could get hurt out there!!
    +13

    227 days ago
    TheDailyDump
    easier to ban the sports - rugby, league, boxing...
    -3

    227 days ago
    Joop30
    Rubbish!!!

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