Rugby and concussion: tantamount to child abuse?
Academics' headline-grabbing claim has been described as 'verging on insulting'
![Children playing rugby](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Bk4SJdS89xsd9t5Y725qWA-415-80.jpg)
A report by academics that claims children's rugby could be a form of child abuse has sparked a flood of criticism.
"Two centuries after the birth of rugby on school playing fields", the experts say the game "should be banned among under-18s", said The Times.
'Abusive to a child's brain'
The researchers, from the universities of Winchester, Nottingham Trent and Bournemouth, argued that the risk of major injury in the game goes against child abuse laws.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
They found that "knocks to the head" can lead to dementia or Parkinson's, and that children who started playing younger are more likely to risk brain trauma, compared to those who took up the game at an older age.
Speaking to The Times, Eric Anderson, a professor of sport at the University of Winchester who led the study, said: "These collisions cause cognitive harm and increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases and dementia; they are therefore abusive to a child's brain."
He added that our "cultural perception is that striking a child outside sport is abuse" but "striking a child in sport is somehow socially acceptable". It "doesn't matter what the social context is, the brain is damaged in both", he said.
The point that the academics were "trying to make will be lost in the melee" that greeted their headline-grabbing use of the word "abuse", said Ross Clark in The Spectator. This is frustrating because, "had it been expressed in more moderate language", he would find himself "fully in agreement" with the authors.
There is a "serious risk of injury, and one which seems to be growing" because "the sport seems to be becoming ever more physical, and children are growing bigger and heavier from a young age".
The words of a "rugby-loving parent" who provides first aid to a team of schoolboys in Sussex are remembered by Sean Ingle in The Guardian. "It is not until you have cradled the head of someone else's son, who is then unable to stand unassisted, that it really hits home how dangerous this game can be," they told him.
"With every passing year," said Ingle, "what we know about the dangers of head impacts continues to evolve" and "rugby will have to as well".
'Verging on insulting'
"Can they really mean it, though?" asked David Horspool in The Spectator. There are also "risks" in "other children's activities, including football, cycling and swimming", but "no one advocating for those sports is intentionally subjecting children to harm".
Vocabulary "never ceases to amaze me", wrote the former England rugby union international Will Greenwood in The Telegraph, but to call rugby "child abuse" is "aggressive, verging on insulting".
The "entire landscape around injuries – of the head or otherwise – in rugby has shifted enormously in the past 20 years", he said. Although "historically" players were not "well looked after", those days are "long gone", so there is "no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater".
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson fears that there could be a drive to ban rugby altogether. "If we keep going like this,", said the former PM in the Daily Mail, the "vast army" of "finger-wagging, cigar-snatching, mask-wearing, Covid-maddened health and safety fanatics" is "going to keep pushing us back, our boots skidding in the mud", until they have "driven the oval ball right off the national pitch".
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Nasa's 'strangest find': pure sulphur on Mars
Under the Radar Curiosity rover discovers elemental sulphur rocks, adding to 'growing evidence' of life-sustaining elements on Red Planet
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Bodycam shows deputy killing Black woman
Speed Read An Illinois deputy fatally shot Sonya Massey, who had called 911 about suspected trespassers
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'Spare us the charade'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
The heated battle over air conditioning at the Paris Olympics
In the Spotlight Athletes want AC in the Olympic Village but Paris officials are crying foul
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Boston Celtics win record 18th NBA title
Speed Read In the NBA Finals, the Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Cricket is swiftly becoming America's new obsession
In the Spotlight Team USA recently shocked the world by beating Pakistan in the Men's World Cup
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Biles wins 9th national title ahead of Olympics
Speed Read She swept every individual event at the U.S. Gymnastics Championship
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
MLB adds Negro League stats, raising Josh Gibson
Speed Read The record books have changed as old Negro Leagues stats are finally incorporated
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
College athletes to get paid after NCAA settlement
Speed Read The new revenue-sharing model will see schools pay their athletes a cut of the money they generate
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The economics of taxpayer-subsidized stadiums
In Depth Shiny new stadiums can end up costing taxpayers billions
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
The complicated Americanization of European soccer
Under The Radar An increasing number of teams are finding themselves under American ownership. What does that mean for the continent's most popular sport?
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published