March 5, 2016
To tackle or not to tackle?……that is the question.
We played Rugger at my boarding school from about the age of nine, and we were taught how to tackle without being injured. In those days the studs on boots were leather and nailed, and you did not want that in your face – especially as many were worn down, with jagged nails protruding. (The softies now use rubber studs I believe…) Our watchword was “the bigger they are the harder they fall”. Yes, I was sometimes dazed and saw stars, but I don’t remember any serious injuries. It was fun, hard fun, and the muddier we got the more we laughed. We were not allowed to play if the ground was hard with frost, but sometimes we played on very cold days, encouraging us to run and keep moving. It is my view that non tackle Rugby would be less fun, and that kids must learn how to manage risk and deal with danger. Is this move towards contactless Rugby yet another sign of the increasing namby pamby feminisation of youth so prevalent in the UK today? It won’t work.
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