Why I don't want my grandchildren playing rugby union - YP Letters

The following letter, on the subject of player safety in rugby union and the state of the current game, was sent into The Yorkshire Post sports desk by Dave Walton from Alwoodley, Leeds.
Harlequins' Elia Elia and Joe Marler as a scrum breaks up during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match against London Irish at Twickenham Stoop on January 10. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images)Harlequins' Elia Elia and Joe Marler as a scrum breaks up during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match against London Irish at Twickenham Stoop on January 10. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
Harlequins' Elia Elia and Joe Marler as a scrum breaks up during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match against London Irish at Twickenham Stoop on January 10. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images)

He writes: Currently, press comment is full of discussion regarding the lack of protection for players who have required head injury assessments and are now in later life suffering the consequences of such injuries.

According to the Sunday Times, the England coach came out with the comment “I don't think the game at the moment is unsafe.”

Surely that is a crass comment to have made.

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I played Union at school and then club rugby into the seventies. My son did the same to age 18. He has two sons and sadly I have suggested he encourages them into other sports.

That is a great pity because rugby has many attributes both on and off the field and enables you to make friends for life.

The sport has, amongst others, three major problems, in my opinion, in order to improve safety in the game: 1) The size of players

2) There are too many players on the field; as a result the art of threequarter play is slowly disappearing.

Bristol Bears' Nathan Hughes looks on at the back of the scrum during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match against Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on January 9. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)Bristol Bears' Nathan Hughes looks on at the back of the scrum during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match against Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on January 9. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Bristol Bears' Nathan Hughes looks on at the back of the scrum during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match against Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on January 9. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
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3) In the past the forwards won the ball and gave it to the threequarters to make ground. Forwards could go through a game making very few tackles on a one-on-one basis.

Compare that with today's game where players can make up to 20 tackles and can make the same number of carries.

Many of these collisions are made by players weighing over 100 kilos. These occur because after a tackle or maul the defending side can stand almost on the gain line and are often offside because the referee is unable to police this offence as he is watching so many other potential offences.

As a result, the attacking side has difficulty in getting to the gain line and resorts to multi-plays of driving the ball into another tackle having made only a metre or two, eventually resorting to booting the ball down field.

Both plays have become boring being so repetitive .

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I could go one about the potential five minute scrums but that is for another day.

The game needs to change dramatically or it will gradually sink into the past.

Two less players would help as it would create more space and as a result a more entertaining game.

Of course, that is unlikely to happen because it would be bowing to the other code and we would be back to the 1870s and that would never do.

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