The Rugby Football Union has launched a radical plan to save school rugby, which introduces three forms of the game including ‘reduced contact’, after an independent report predicted it will become a “declining minority sport” without bold changes.
The report pulled no punches in its assessment of rugby’s diminishing standing in the ‘marketplace’ of schools sport, stating: “This is an urgent issue approaching crisis point.”
The report, entitled ‘Changing the Game: the Future of Schools Rugby in England’, was commissioned by the RFU and has led the governing body to commit to implementing the recommendations which include launching a non-contact form of rugby which still features scrums, line-outs and the breakdown, called T1, over the next four years.
The report also recommends that the RFU should formally codify three forms of the game, including non-contact and reduced contact, to remove some of the perceived barriers to entry for rugby and alleviate parental concerns over the injury risk.
What the report, which was led by Sir Jon Coles, the chief executive of national schools group United Learning, makes clear is that without urgent action rugby union would be on the path to irrelevance.
Less rugby in schools will diminish professional game
“In the schools ‘marketplace’, rugby is not winning,” the report read. “It is losing out to other sports. Rugby in England cannot rely on having the central cultural place in national life that it has in Wales or New Zealand. Changing attitudes and values coupled with greater risk aversion in the part of society which once saw rugby as central to school life mean that rugby also cannot rely on that any longer.
“This matters enormously to rugby in England, because without rugby in schools, there will be much less rugby in the community, a much weakened professional and national game and a diminished audience. This is an urgent issue approaching crisis point.
“RFU could pursue a strategy of a very small number of elite schools populating the professional and national game; alongside a ‘clubs’ strategy. They could not worry about getting people playing in school but rather rely on the clubs to introduce the game. The review group believe that this would be a major strategic error, elitist in only allowing children and young people from particular backgrounds to access rugby union and lead to a shrinking game at all levels.
“To do both of these things well is to walk a fine line. But both must be done boldly and with energy. Without (a), the game will shrink rapidly in schools and in consequence in the community and beyond. Without (b), the game will be a declining minority sport, seen as upper class and elitist. You must always change a losing game, and at the moment rugby is playing a losing game in schools.”
Other recommendations include creating a director of schools rugby position at the RFU and rolling out a ‘rugby flatpack’ which would enable a PE teacher with no rugby experience to be able to coach a term of T1 rugby from scratch.
Concern over head injuries
One key factor behind falling participation, even amongst established rugby schools, is the concern over head injuries, which is why the report recommends offering alternatives to full contact which can still be played within a ‘rugby term’.
However, the report also identifies a decline in rugby values at the top end of the game as well as the perception that it is a sport for ‘posh white boys’ as other compounding factors.
“The once unquestioned place of rugby as the sport promoting the best sporting values is increasingly challenged – partly because schools see behaviour at the highest levels of the game which once they would not and partly because they see [for example from the England women’s football team] that other sports can be played with excellent and admirable values.
“Finally, the game does continue to have an image problem with some, who may see it as a game for the ‘posh’ or for ‘posh boys’ or for ‘posh white boys.’
Rugby is a game which has inspired and enthused people of both sexes, all skin colours, all social and economic backgrounds and all shapes and sizes – but that is not the perception everywhere in England.”
Some heads of established rugby schools have also expressed concerns about the ‘macho culture’ within male rugby and the report has called on Premiership academies to better promote rugby values within their communities.
The report does express hope that rugby can address its slide if its recommendations are implemented. “We believe that urgent action is necessary. However, we do believe that the situation is winnable and the problems can be tackled.”
