NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport

Is rugby safe for kids? English Rugby Union strikes back

By Gavin Mairs of the Telegraph
NZ Herald·
19 Oct, 2017 11:44 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

England's Kay Wilson and Kendra Cocksedge of New Zealand during the women's Rugby World Cup final. Photo / ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

England's Kay Wilson and Kendra Cocksedge of New Zealand during the women's Rugby World Cup final. Photo / ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The England Rugby Football Union is to launch a nationwide programme to "win the hearts and minds" of parents in a bid to confront mounting concerns about the risk of injuries associated with the sport, the Telegraph has revealed.

The multifaceted campaign will form a key tenet of the RFU's new four-year strategic plan as the governing body seeks to fight back against the negative publicity generated by the rising number of high-profile injuries in the professional game and the recent call by a professor for tackling and contact to be banned from schools because of the risks to children.

The RFU will also seek to rejuvenate the struggling grassroots game over the next four years with the new plan, entitled Game of our Lives, putting a greater emphasis on investing in facilities and empowering club rugby than any before in the professional era.

Central to this - as well addressing the fears over injuries - will be the RFU's aim to increase female participation in the sport from 25,000 to 50,000 over the next four years and up to 100,000 over the next decade.

The strategic plan, set to be unveiled later this month, will also include the aspiration to recruit 400 new female coaches and 400 female referees during the next four years while an urgent priority is to be given to investing in facilities such as female changing rooms.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The RFU hope that growing impact and influence of the growth of the women's game will "transform" perceptions about the risks of injury as the governing body tries to replicate the success of a campaign by Australian Rules Football in the 1990s to encourage greater parental involvement - particularly mums - to reduce fears over injuries.

Andy Cosslett, the RFU chairman, in an exclusive interview with Telegraph Sport, strongly rebuts claims that the risk of injury in rugby is too dangerous but admits the governing body has to put its "best foot forward in demonstrating that we care about this".

"We are very wedded to the central idea that rugby union remains a very powerful force for good," said Cosslett, who replaced Bill Beaumont as RFU chairman last October.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"There are injuries in rugby, we know that, it is a contact sport. Everyone grows up knowing that. But we certainly don't accept that it is at a too high level.

"There is an injury risk in playing rugby but the benefits of the game substantially outweigh the risk. That said, it is our job and in our best interests to make sure we are doing everything we can to take that risk down and reduce the level of injuries. It is important to us and matters to us a lot, particularly at the younger end, that we are thoughtful about their health and that we are managing their progression into the game."

The RFU has received a letter from the four UK chief medical officers that rejects the claims by Professor Allyson Pollock that tackling should be banned from school rugby and states that participation does not pose "an unacceptable risk of harm".

However the RFU's own research last year revealed that one-third of parents in their sample expressed a concern about their son or daughter playing rugby and Cosslett said the new strategic plan would attempt to address those concerns.

Discover more

Sport|rugby

Sopoaga: 'The scariest moment of my life'

19 Oct 06:27 AM
Sport|rugby

Barrett goes so newbie must stay

19 Oct 04:00 PM
All Blacks

The one area the All Blacks are lacking

19 Oct 04:00 PM
All Blacks

Why we should expect a close test on Saturday

19 Oct 05:22 PM

The governing body has spent nine months compiling their new plan, and included widespread consultation from every level of the game and Cosslett's direct experience of the AFL's successful campaign when he spent seven years working in Melbourne has shaped his ideas on how English rugby can benefit by embracing parents.

"When I went to Australia in the early Nineties, Aussie Rules was challenged and they had some concerns about whether or not they were able to grow participation and they were very concerned about the growth of rugby because it was an international game and they thought there would be a natural gravitation," Cosslett added.

"The AFL did a massive amount to develop their relationship with families. They have this incredible thing called 'Auskick' where they manage five to 12 year-olds, every Friday night, Saturday morning and Sunday morning and the parents are part of it.

"They encourage parents to take coaching certificates to get involved and host barbecues and it has become a social event for the weekend for many Australian families. That is also part of the way they have been able to go into other parts of Australia where the game was not strong, such as Sydney.

"We don't have much to fix in rugby but we have an opportunity to do more and we can really put the family at the heart of the game by doing a lot more.

"This strategy will bring that to life. It is about the clubs. What they did in Aussie Rules the major drive was to get participation of the entire family of parents involved. We need to do the same."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The theory is that as parents become more familiar with the benefits of the game, they will have a more balanced view on the risks of injury. Cosslett points to cycling, a sport with a relatively high risk of injury but has enjoyed phenomenal growth in recent years, as an example, because families are more "comfortable" with it as a sport.

Cosslett also hopes that the increase in the number of females playing the game will have a direct impact.

"One of the really interesting thing for us is that the growth of the women's game over the next five to 10 years is going to transform this understanding," Cosslett added.

"We now have 25,000 regular players and another seven or 8,000 who play touch rugby. We have got a plan to try to increase the number of female players up to 50,000 in the duration of the next four-year plan.

"Beyond that we can't see any reason why we can't take that up to 100,000. Those 100,000 will bring friends and people who become volunteers.

"As that cohort of women grows and becomes intimately involved in the game and if many are younger and then they become mums, they are going to feel differently about the game than probably their mum or their mum's mum because they have just been involved in it.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"In 10 year's time that infusion of women into the game will start to quite radically change the profile of the game because the understanding of what is involved, the teaching and the injury risk. The fear factor generated by the unknown will change and more people will flood into the game because of what it stands for."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Live
Boxing

David Nyika returns with TKO win; SBW and Gallen set to settle feud

Live
Black Caps

Black Caps face South Africa as Rob Walter era begins

Premium
Opinion

Ranked: The 30 greatest fast bowlers in test history


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

David Nyika returns with TKO win; SBW and Gallen set to settle feud
Live
Boxing

David Nyika returns with TKO win; SBW and Gallen set to settle feud

Follow the action as Sonny Bill Williams and Paul Gallen square off in Sydney.

16 Jul 09:31 AM
Black Caps face South Africa as Rob Walter era begins
Live
Black Caps

Black Caps face South Africa as Rob Walter era begins

16 Jul 09:30 AM
Premium
Premium
Ranked: The 30 greatest fast bowlers in test history
Opinion

Ranked: The 30 greatest fast bowlers in test history

16 Jul 04:01 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP