generally, the injuries sustained by children are less frequent and less harmful given the relatively low mass we are working with, i.e. children tend to not be anything greater than approx 70-75kg when reaching Y11 (5th form, in old money), so the force of impacts, stresses, etc are considerably less than the much bigger open age game where players are anything up to 120-130kg. the NZ model of playing youngsters by weight grade rather than age grade does ensure a much fairer physical contest, and by the time they get to injury inducing sizes, the children will have dropped out of playing rugby if they cannot handle the physicality. the idea that children are being "forced" to play full contact rugby and tackle huge beasts of much greater size is either a myth, or some schools need to address their safeguarding. as a coach, I would not for 1 minute put a child into a situation where they are vastly undersize, not wanting to play knowing full well that they are likely to get injured. we recently had to get special dispensation from the local RFU to put a player down an age grade due to his physical size (he still wanted to play, but we could see that opponents were beginning to target him as they got older and more wily). again, I believe that responsible coaching and management of the game(s) is going to be far more effective than banning physical contact altogether, and anybody proposing outright bans on physical contact are pure scaremongers and should be listened to, and argued against.
There are plenty of sports which kids can do involving running, jumping, swimming, throwing, catching, kicking, hitting things with clubs/bats/racquets, and falling down in the mud. These activities rarely result in brain damage or paralysis. Some kids are keen to court danger and risk, in actions like jumping from high roofs, skateboard stunting, and playing chicken on railway lines. Should responsible adults try to stop them? Or permit them? Or make them compulsory?
Farkin' 'ell.......... ........Sack Race will be defined as a High Risk Sport; and Egg & Spoon race will be positively lethal. Must remember not to inflate balloons too much in case the 'pop' makes the kids go deaf.
No paddling in rivers or streams anymore..........those sticklebacks are nasty little b*****ds..........
Alternatively adults like parents and teachers could exercise some mature judgement, and distinguish activities which are too hazardous for kids from those which exercise their bodies, minds, and characters.
I don't recall any of the boys when I was at school breaking anything but then we were all out playing and learnt to dive duck dodge Kids these days don't play out and the only physical contact is playing rugby at school I was surprised at the number of boys getting a broken ankle leg arms it must of been around 7 or 8 from playing rugby in the space of two days Are they being supervised My son was the tallest in his year and the kids loved to try and take him down hanging on to his neck etc He also played for the under 9-11 for Hereford One match resulted in him being grabbed by the legs as the boy was shorter than Harry and down he went onto his head as he had hold of the ball and got knocked out @efcbluepete you have seen the size of Harry He now suffers with neck and shoulder pain I never stopped him playing but I do think the effects of being jumped on and grabbed around the neck are affecting him Perhaps if kids were taught properly how to play damage limitation may be better
On the basis of what Pete has said, I guess instead of living nearly as long as he has, I should be dead already....... .....Climbing trees and falling out of them; crashing bicycles; using catapaults and air guns; searching through junkyards; jumping off shed roofs; leaping over barbed wire fences; collecting scars from cuts connected with those activities.........splashing about and swimming in rivers and lakes........None of my crowd of friends got any broken bones or really serious injuries. ...........On the basis of his current age and opinions, I guess Pete probably didn't do any of those things...........just read books and the odd bit of running and making mud pies..........either that or he grew up early and I didn't. Which just goes to show there is sod all difference in being active or not; apart from being fat and unhealthy.
LOL! Brillant Pete ............You don't know just how close you are............. My bike was a 350 Enfield Bullet and the fence was indeed barbed wire, but only three strands high.............I wasn't trying to jump it, but I was being chased off a farmer's field and couldn't stop when I saw the fence and slid into it.
Good, that's how it should be. It's character building. Is it any wonder we produce such a bunch of feckless, useless lumps with an overblown sense of entitlement when we don't allow them to learn the lessons of life and grow into decent young adults with the odd small battle scar. I'm not talking about yours obviously @Ducbird , I'm sure they are little cherubs. Oh, and dressed from top to toe in RED.
If they're hanging off their necks, that should be stopped. Teach them to tackle properly and scrum properly and basically respect each other and then you'll be fine. Tackling a players upper half will get you nowhere. Wrap your arms around their ankles and they fall like anyone else, no matter their size (within reason).
The lad in question is only 12 The poor kid could hardly move when I saw him what if he had broken his neck would that be acceptable I agree with character building and rough and tumble but that shouldn't come at a cost of being injured to an extent that you can hardly move Grabbing necks isn't rugby I dont see that behaviour on the grown up field
We should start to firm up the discussion so far and put some numbers on it. Are we all agreed - 10% casualties (killed and seriously injured) amongst the under-16s? More? Less? Should there be an age-related taper?
Agreed, but banning it completely because of the wrongful actions of a few individuals is wrong. Deal with the actions of the individuals. You can break your ankle stepping from a kerb, drown in an inch of water...........Do you stop crossing the road or having a bath? H&S has gone mad in this country, and in typical leftist fashion, anybody who questions it is shot down and painted as a lunatic. I played rugby at school, fell off my bike many times, always had a bump or scrape on my body. It never did me any harm, in fact quite the opposite.
