Vote totals:
Yes:
17%
No:
50%
Neutral:
33%
DEBATE: SHOULD RUGBY UNION MOVE TO UNCONTESTED SCRUMMAGING?
SHOULD RUGBY UNION MOVE TO UNCONTESTED SCRUMMAGING?
The scrum has the potential to cause serious injury
The force exerted on the vulnerable neck and spine area by scrummage poses an unacceptable risk to health. A collapsed scrum is one of the chief causes of injury. More than 100 players registered with the RFU have been paralysed by injuries sustained in the game and there are more than 36,000 schoolboy injuries every year. An Australian medical journal found that 7 out of the 23 acute spinal cord injuries sustained between 1997 and 2002 were as a result of a collapsed scrum.
Rugby is a contact sport, and that is of course going to carry risks. Yet statistically the chance of sustaining a catastrophic injury playing rugby is less than one in 100,000 (0.84 to be precise). This makes it less dangerous than horse riding, biking or driving a car. Furthermore, less than half of serious neck injuries occur in the scrum; tackling or falling from a lineout are more likely causes.
So Rugby Union is not that great a risk to health, and even if we did want to reduce that risk, removing contested scrummage would not be the solution.
SHOULD RUGBY UNION MOVE TO UNCONTESTED SCRUMMAGING?
The scrum contributes little to the game
Top coach Alan Jones, who trained the Australian national side in the 1980s, has gone on record claiming that the scrum is not worth the dangers involved. The ball very rarely changes hands as a result of a scrum, so it does little to progress the game. Therefore it is not worth risking the strain it places on players’ bodies.
The scrum is an essential part of the game of Rugby Union. It is a means to restart play. It also brings an added element into the game, requiring forwards to be both strong and skilled in order to make ground in the scrum.
Removing the scrum would mean that teams could get away with using less high quality forwards and would drag the standard of the sport down. Rugby is about contact; without the scrum it would not be the same game.
SHOULD RUGBY UNION MOVE TO UNCONTESTED SCRUMMAGING?
Rugby players are getting larger
As advances in training techniques and nutrition, along with general trends towards increasing height, produce ever taller and more muscular player, the forces involved in the scrum are increasing. With greater strength pushing against eachother, the risk of injuries in the scrum can only become more severe.
It isn’t the levels of strength involved that pose a risk, but the way they are employed. Mere strength isn’t going to make a scrum collapse; poor technique, or a weak point in the scrum are more likely to pose a risk. Stronger players should, with good training, be able to produce a more stable scrum.
SHOULD RUGBY UNION MOVE TO UNCONTESTED SCRUMMAGING?
All sports carry risks; that is an unavoidable part of competing
Just because risks cannot be entirely eliminated doesn’t mean we should not make an effort to minimise them. In any high risk situation participants take safety precautions. By eliminating the biggest dangers of injury in the scrum, players can still enjoy the physical challenge of rugby while reducing their risk of harm.
Whoever is reading this is really, really obsessed (unless you’re in speech and debate or something)
Any activity poses a safety risk; the only way to eliminate them is to spend our lives lying perfectly still! Rugby scrums are hardly the most risky situation that sportspeople enter into.
The Olympic sport of equestrian eventing, for instance, has caused twelve fatalities in the past year amongst both experienced and newer riders. Yet people still wish to compete; they are willing to run the risk in order to achieve success.
People risk life and limb engaging in ‘extreme’ sports all over the world. From base jumping to free diving, sportspeople push their bodies to the limit and risk injury in order to break records and expand the boundaries of human capability. The point is that they run these risks knowingly and willingly, just like rugby players do. Sport can never be 100% ‘safe’- and if it was, it would be neither competitive nor fun.
SHOULD RUGBY UNION MOVE TO UNCONTESTED SCRUMMAGING?
YOU ARE REALL DUMB
eu penso que você é realmente estúpido desde que você está falando em portugese e aquele não é justo mesmo que eu igualmente esteja falando em portugese mas aprovação que boa eu supor nós somos ambos meio e eu sei você usou um tradutor mas eu supor que são aprovado demasiado porque eu sou também bom mim supor que nós somos ambos os tapeadores e que é um fato oh bem, oh bom
(Las conversaciones anteriores están en portugese, así que usted puede traducirlo si usted quiere)
naturalmente i’ m que fala sobre você, você pequeno-er otário-fucker Você acredita-o é normal falar sobre mim, mim pequeno-er otário-fucker? você é um pequeno-otário-fucker Talvez você gostaria de ser um pequeno-otário-fucker? OH MEU NO. DA DEUSA!!!!! Você não está dizendo nenhum justo ser negativo? OH MEU NO. DA DEUSA!!!! Vindo, vindo, explique seus pensamentos. eu penso que você é realmente, realmente mudo. Satisfá-lo acreditar que eu sou realmente, realmente mudo?
