RugbyRebels

Question:

Is it right that youngsters entering secondary school without any prior experience of the physical contact aspects of rugby union in particularly how to tackle correctly and how to “ride” a tackle as safely as possible should be immediately be expected to take part in the full contact fifteen aside game (e.g. shoved into their house side or PE side to make up the numbers) or should there be some sort of proficiency test that they need to pass first?

I’m particularly recalling the situation back in the 80s and earlier where people were made to play at their schools (usually independent and/or grammar schools) whether they were big, strong and naturally skillful/athletic or completely physically dyslexic and regardless of whether or not they had ever been taught how to tackle which in hindsight seems reckless and borderline negligent. Has the introduction of mini rugby helped to make the introduction to full contact rugby more safe and to what extent?

That’s a really interesting question. I’m not sure any age is good to start physical contact but considering like anything else, some people take to it like crack and some people avoid tackling and the amount of serious injury’s is pretty low I think we are ok.

If the game was more popular we could do more, but it isn’t. One of the big things happening in Scotland is a push to the girls playing S1/S2 with boys (U13/U14) rather than splitting after P7 (U12s).

The pandemic delayed it , but the gut feeling is it will increase participation although we will have to see how it affects injury rates.