A blow for Rugby Union....

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Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
This could have a significant impact on Rugby Union as we know it:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...ia-landmark-legal-case?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Soccer and American Football also have the same issue.

Watch Rugby now compared to matches before the Professional age and you’ll see the differences in the style of play, the number of impacts and the power of the players.
The solution for Soccer is fairly straightforward, no more heading, but Rugby Union is a different kettle of puns.

Thoughts?
 

Drago

Legendary Member
I played a bit myself up until I joined the army. Unlike soccer, you know full well its a full contact physical sport, and that such physical contact can cause injury, and occasionally even death, and you start each game with this knowledge. If people don't like living with the consequences of their own choices then I hardly see thats the fault of World Rugby.

I don't nevessarily think the power of the players has changed all that much. Even age 20 I was bigger than heavier than the average Lions player is in 2020. I'd say they're probably fitter and better conditioned than they were then, but kinetic energy hasn't changed much in between times.
 
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I played a bit myself up until I joined the army. Unlike soccer, you know full well its a full contact physical sport, and that such physical contact can cause injury, and occasionally even death, and you start each game with this knowledge. If people don't like living with the consequences of their own choices then I hardly see thats the fault of World Rugby.

I don't nevessarily think the power of the players has changed all that much. Even age 20 I was bigger than heavier than the average Lions player is in 2020. I'd say they're probably fitter and better conditioned than they were then, but kinetic energy hasn't changed much in between times.

It never harmed me so it must be OK? What does played 'a bit mean?

The power of players has changed hugely since you played 'a bit' in the last century. Did you play top class rugby against pros who are bulking up and training full-time. The speed is faster and the collisions heavier than they were. I doubt that even you as a callow youth would have lasted 10 minutes of a modern top class game.
Top rugby players have lived with the fact since the game started that they were doing their joints and bones no good at all and were prepared to live with that, possibly having to give up the sport, but it is only more recently that the link to dementia has been better researched and known.
Now that the link is better researched those who run the game have no excuse not to look at ways of mitigating it.
At least young players will have the knowledge of what could happen to them to help them decide their future in the game.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
The average weight of a top level player has gone up by 25% since 1955. It's now about 16 stone 8 ounces. They probably move a lot faster due to training harder too. That's a big increase in kinetic energy that has to be shed when they impact on another human body.
 

Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
Having watched professional football for 50 years i'd say the famous footballers we hear about dying in their late 70's.80's and 90's of dementia (now often blamed on heading the ball) were lucky to live so long,getting well paid for their efforts. Many industrial workers die of work related illnesses and we just accept it. Why can't professional footballers do the same?
 
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steveindenmark

Legendary Member
Next we will have boxers taking action against their sporting body. The risks of brain damage through any contact sport is obvious at the outset. After getting clattered a couple of times at rugby, it is even more obvious. These guys had the opportunity to hang their boots up at any stage and walk away and chose not not to. At what stage do they take responsibility for their own actions and stop trying to blame someone else.
 

winjim

Smash the cistern
Having watched professional football for 50 years i'd say the famous footballers we hear about dying in their late 70's.80's and 90's of dementia (now often blamed on heading the ball) were lucky to live so long,getting well paid for their efforts. Many industrial workers die of work related illnesses and we just accept it. Why can't professional footballers do the same?
Health and safety is taken seriously in the workplace. See:

https://osha.europa.eu/en/safety-and-health-legislation/european-directives
 
D

Deleted member 1258

Guest
Health and safety is taken seriously in the workplace. See:

https://osha.europa.eu/en/safety-and-health-legislation/european-directives

Yes it is now in most work places, but in the past that wasn't the case, and even now there are a minority of firms operating that take little notice of health and safety
 

winjim

Smash the cistern
No I'm not fine with that, but I'm retired now and no longer in the work place, when I was working I was not in a position to do anything about it when I came across it, as a labourer, van driver, forklift driver my option were limited.
I mean it reinforces my point really. H&S in the workplace was lax, so we did something about it. The poster I was responding to seemed to think we are fine with poor H&S at work. We are not.

Well, we might be by the end of the month...
 

Drago

Legendary Member
It never harmed me so it must be OK? What does played 'a bit mean?
Played for Olney, tried out for the Saints 3rds but joined the Army before that ran its course and when I left the green machine 4 years later I had lost interest. So I was playing at the very lowest rung of what would today be semi-pro.

I wasn't harmed, but I never suggested it could not cause harm. I am suggesting that we all played knowing full well the injury of risk or death, and chose to play nevertheless. That's what 'contact sport' means.

The average weight of a top level player has gone up by 25% since 1955. It's now about 16 stone 8 ounces. They probably move a lot faster due to training harder too. That's a big increase in kinetic energy that has to be shed when they impact on another human body.

That's still a stone lighter than I was when I played. A kg of mass at X speed still carries the same energy today as it did 30 years ago - they have more KG moving, but then the opposing player has more KG to counter with, but its difficult to be sure of anything size wise as prior to the professional game records were not kept. As aforementioned, I was bigger then - and now - than the average Lions player is today, and I was far from being alone in that.

I see little evidence that they're running any faster - increased mass at that level is incompatible with speed and acceleration, too much intertia. That's why sprinters tend not to be built like Michael Clark-Duncan.

But the bottom line is we all knew it was dangerous. in a sense it's little more than a team-played martial art, and people would breaks bones, spines, end up wheelchair bound and occasionally die. Knowing this, we still chose to play. The current mob who are moaning also knew this, and were still happy to take the pay cheque for each pro game. Why should World rugby be responsible for someone else's freely made life choices?
 
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winjim

Smash the cistern
I'm pretty sure that an 18yo ultra competitive sportsperson is not going to be properly thinking of the consequences of an illness which may develop 30, 40, 50 years down the line. Teenagers have poor risk perception at the best of times.
 
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Dirk

If 6 Was 9
Location
Watchet
I can't see the problem when someone is injured whilst participate willingly in a dangerous sport.
I road raced motorcycles up to international level for the best part of 20 years. You don't ever start a TT race without the knowledge that a simple error, or mechanical failure, could kill you (or worse), yet you still go down Bray Hill at 140mph + when the flag drops.
I would suggest that the majority of people, who rail against dangerous sports, have no capacity to understand the mindset of those who partake of them.
 
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