Rugby, a sport sometimes regarded as notorious for injuries, has recently come under fire in the UK after a group of more than 70 academics, physicians and medical experts wrote an open letter to politicians demanding an end to tackling in the under-18s version of the sport.
The call has ignited a debate in the country over the merits of tackling in children’s rugby and over the severity and likelihood of young people sustaining severe injuries when playing the competitive sport.
An excerpt from the open letter listed injuries including “fractures, ligamentous tears, dislocated shoulders, spinal injuries and head injuries,” and said that such damage “can have short-term, life-long and life-ending consequences for children.”
Allyson Pollock, a professor of public health research and policy at Queen Mary University of London, told the BBC, “The risk of injury can be as high as 28 percent for a child playing in a season, and they can also have an 11 percent chance of being concussed, and these injuries are serious.”
But opponents argue that tackling is a central and defining feature of the game and that if necessary precautions are taken, the risk of injury can be minimized. The argument stands in contrast to the high rates of injury raised by Pollock, suggesting that if precautions can be taken, they are currently not being taken in the UK.
The debate is likely to expand outside of the UK to other countries where rugby is an established and popular sport, such as in France or Italy.
In Macau, rugby has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent decades. However, according to the Times’ research, there is little support for any ban on tackling in under-18s rugby, with a broad consensus existing between rugby players and organizers and local physicians.
“Of course any medical study [like the one in the UK] is always something that needs to be taken seriously,” said Ricardo Pina, President of the Macau Rugby Association.
“But I think the contact in mini-rugby – or kids’ rugby – is as safe as any sport, and there are ways to increase protection and minimize risk,” added Pina.
The Macau Rugby Association coordinates and organizes local rugby clubs and events, including children’s clubs. They say that the sport has become increasingly popular in the last few decades – not just in Macau, but worldwide – prompting rugby-related organizations to focus on reducing severe injuries and the negative image surrounding them.
Ricardo Pina
“World rugby in the last 10 years has tried to minimize injuries,” said Ricardo Pina. “Even the way that scrums are played today is completely different to how it was when I started.”
Luis Heredia, one of the founders and a former President of a children’s rugby association, the Macau Bats Rugby Club, agrees with Pina. He stated that the sport is developing in such a way to reduce and minimize injuries.
“We have had about 60–100 kids playing rugby in Macau over the last decade and sometimes there are one or two cases that become a big issue, but not very often. In my experience I didn’t see the kids experience the same impacts [and injuries] as the seniors,” commented Heredia, adding that “children go in stages and are gradually [acclimatized] to the game.”
Indeed, a study funded by the Australian Rugby Union and World Rugby, conducted by the University of NSW, found that injuries among juniors were much more rare than among adults.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Rugby Union Injury Surveillance Study analyzed the game at various levels between 2004 and 2008 and discovered that under 18’s were less than half as likely to suffer injury than senior suburban players. Injury incidents decreased among younger groups.
Dr Rui Furtado
In order to celebrate 20 years of rugby in the MSAR, the Macau Rugby Union and the children’s club presented a rugby festival and competition earlier this month at The International School (TIS) of Macau. The competition invited Hong Kong’s Valley Rugby Football Club to play in a friendly match.
Hong Kong has also seen growing interest in the sport as vibrant and energetic youth associations have sprung up since the 1980s. Today the Hong Kong Mini Rugby Football Union has grown to include some 20 active clubs made up of over 4,600 children under the age of 12.
The organization’s website demonstrates a similar attention to safety as was repeatedly stressed to the Times by Macau-based counterpart organizations. It boasts a gradual “age grade pathway easing [the children] in from modified touch rugby to the contact form of the game by the time they reach [under nine] level.”
“I can imagine there are some people with concerns,” Luis Heredia said, in response to being asked about the movement to ban tackling. “It is a sport that is growing fast now, and obviously there are some that can get injured like with any other sport [such as] soccer, hockey and basketball.”
Luis Heredia
Dr Rui Furtado, a local physician and former president of the Association of Macau Portuguese Speaking Physicians, believes that the proposal to ban tackling in children’s rugby is “nonsense,” despite the fact that Furtado himself sustained a “non-serious” knee injury while he was playing the sport competitively from high school to senior level.
“It required surgery,” he said, “but I refused. So the suggestion was not to play anymore, and I gave [it] up.”
“The sport can cause trauma, and severe trauma in some cases, but [rugby] coaches take special care. If this is well done, there are no special injuries normally,” Furtado explained, adding that in his experience injuries are very uncommon in Macau.
Asked about the prevalence of injuries in children’s rugby in the UK, Furtado said that what makes a rugby-related incident more or less probable is somewhat dependent on the nature of the competitive spirit.
“When the player is more important than the team, injuries are scarce,” he said. “Rugby in places like the UK can be taken very seriously, and when the team is [regarded as] more important than the individual players, injuries can occur.”
The Times also contacted Centro Medico Pedder, a healthcare clinic in Macau, which deals with sports injuries, among other ailments. A specialist said that they would be unable to comment on the issue or about rugby-related injuries in general “due to the uncommonness of the topic.”
Ricardo Pina concurred that injuries are rare. Since he became President of the Macau Rugby Association over two years ago, Pina said, “We haven’t had any serious injuries to kids – even the senior [rugby players] have not yet had any broken bones.”
He added that, to his knowledge, parents have not approached the organization or the local kids’ rugby clubs to express their concerns since his tenure began, although after the UK proposal was made public he admits that he had anticipated such anxieties.
Rui Furtado does not think that parents in Macau will rally behind the proposal to ban tackling in children’s rugby: “You only play rugby if you love it, right?” Daniel Beitler
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