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I think you make a good point John. I have just reached the stage with my son where he's moved from mini to midi rugby at S1 level and the intensity has dramatically increased. The boys love it but I see the parents that are not used to the physical side of rugby visibly cringing at the level of contact the boys are going through. My son also plays football and it is a completely different mentality there with parents almost baying for blood at the games with refs having little control over the attitude of both players and spectators.
In my opinion a few things need to be done to help make the game stay attractive to rugby parents.
1) A continued focus on refereeing games to make it as safe as possible for the players without affecting the physical nature of the game. That involves strict enforcement on bad and dirty tackles and a close eye kept on potentially dangerous situations on the pitch, ie. lots of discussion between coaches and referees on poor technique, mismatches in size, etc. There should never be a reason why any of the coaches or ref cannot stop play for a safety concern (contrary to what I witnessed yesterday in a soccer game!!)
2) Coaches to have their primary focus on safety when they are teaching and practicing skills and technique. Learning how to tackle properly, proper positioning and technique in scrums, what to do in a dangerous situation. My workplace has an undercurrent of safety running through the whole organisation. Rugby should have the same attitude.
3) The SRU should get its act together and sort the laws of the game out at every level. The current situation stands at club rugby having one set of laws, private schools having their own interpretation, and another subset of "Borders rugby" that I heard people speaking of recently. For instance players are told that they can hand-off, push in the scrum, wheel the scrum, oppose in the line-out, etc. depending on where they are playing this week. Crazy! I'm confused, the players are confused. It's just asking for trouble when somebody is unexpectantly exposed to something new like that.

Hope this helps.

I meant to add something about touch rugby too.
I think that it鈥檚 a great idea if we want to encourage a higher skill level in our game. The ball handling skills of the antipodeans stem from their love of playing Touch Rugby, especially in the close season. When living in London, there were plenty of Touch tournaments taking place in the summer involving 15-aside players, non rugby players, women, vets and other groups. It is taken very seriously.
I think it鈥檚 a great way of increasing ball skills, positional awareness, balance and most importantly team-play. In Touch you have to be aware of where your support is, you need to know how to open up a gap in the oppo with proper running angles, sleight of hand, a well timed pass and good communication with your team. That鈥檚 a completely different perspective of the game to the crash, bang, wallop of taking your man on physically and laying it back in a ruck.
The sooner these tourneys can be arranged in Scotland the better it will be for the game. Summertime I reckon, sunshine, firm ground, barbeques 鈥� sounds great!

Hi Harpo, just for your info the SRU are currently delivering a new coaching course called Rugby Ready with the main foucs being on player safety in tackle technique, scrum position and basic body position for contact.

With regards to your second point there are touch tournaments played in scotland- Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh, aberdeen are the ones i know about, but i presume ther are more. Maybe they need to be marketed better.

Harpo, what's a rugby parent?

John, I agree 100%, touch is great fun and thats all you need to keep kids and parents interested in the game.

鈥楾he sooner these tourneys can be arranged in Scotland the better it will be for the game.鈥�

There is no lack of development or opportunities for people to play touch rugby in Scotland.

Organised competitive touch has been played in Scotland since 1994, and there are now about 5000 registered touch players in Scotland, and established league competitions and weekend tournaments throughout the country (Edinburgh alone has three separate summer leagues).

Pretty much every fortnight in the summer there are open entry tournaments across Scotland, with some counting towards the Scottish Touch Series, an annual competition that attracts not only Scotland鈥檚 top sides but also teams from the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. And in September Glasgow hosted the fourth annual National Touch Championships between representative sides from Scotland鈥檚 region. The sport鈥檚 governing body, the Scottish Touch Association, also has a partnership agreement with the Scottish Rugby Union to jointly work on further disseminating the sport and creating common benefits for both sports.

Internationally, Scotland鈥檚 national touch teams have won at least one international title in each of the past four summers and the country鈥檚 Men鈥檚 Open side are the current European Champions, winning that title in Bristol this July.

And last but certainly not least, the Touch World Cup 2011 will be held in Edinburgh next June, the first time the event will be held in Europe.

Rugbygirlz makes the comment that maybe the sport could be better marketed. To cut a long story short, a lot of effort has gone into marketing the sport in Scotland. But as anybody working in a minority sport will tell you, getting the Scottish sports media to take interest in anything other than football, golf and rugby can be a tough ask.

For more information about touch in Scotland, try the following links:
www.touchworldcup2011.co.uk
www.scottishtouch.org.uk
www.edinburghtouch.com
www.glasgowtouch.org.uk
www.stirlingtouch.com
www.aberdeentouch.com
www.touch-scotland.com
www.touchsuperleague.org.uk

John, I played mini rugby, then dabbled at university dropping out as the demands of training v a medical degree meant something had to give. Upon leaving Uni I joined a club as a social player but found that hand injuries were becoming a problem with work and had to quit. Now at 32 I play Touch (when given a pass out at the weekend) and find it allows me to play without needing to commit to three nights of training or run the risk of injury and causing big problems at work or difficulties in looking after the kids.
Whilst I would like to play proper Rugby, touch offers me a way of chucking a ball around with my pals and staying involved in the game, surely a good option for those of us who cannot afford to or want to engage in the physicality of the game.
My point? Touch is a great way for this useless old back-row forward to still feel like he plays the game and therefore presumably anybody. Its improved my handling and awareness no end too.

Hi TwoEsses,

I'd limit your statement to "getting the Scottish sports media to take interest in anything other than football ... " but I get your point!
Thanks for letting us know more about Touch, I'll look more into it for my son.
I guess I mean a "rugby parent" as someone like myself ... mum or dad taxiing matey to his various training and match sessions, and standing on the touchline in the cold wind and rain for eight months of the year, and ending up washing his extemely muddy kit afterwards.

Thanks again.

Not sure I completely understand your point to be honest John, the fact the professional game is "better" than the amateur game is no surprise really? If I was paid to play rugby full time, given the training / diet advice needed to reach optimum levels then yes I would be a better player than I am now, I think everyone accepts there is a gap between the professional game and the amateur game but if that gap disappears how do professional rugby players justify their wages??


Always enjoyed the odd bit of touch rugby as well, it's a valuable training tool and definitely very effective at helping you to identify the best options to retain posession effectively and also evade defences. It's always been as part of rugby training though rather than as a totally separate entity. I enjoy the physical aspect of rugby so touch has it's positives but obviously some negatives as well.

Never played rugby as a younger lad so can't comment on the progression through the ranks but I can see why a sudden jump in physicality would be enough to push some younger players out of the game

I completely agree that we don鈥檛 use touch enough in this country. But I disagree that size, speed and power is everything for the top level.

We are too focused on size rather than ability in Scotland. Size, speed and power are easy for coaches to notice, but there are only a very small number of couches who recognise size over ability over physical attributes. As you mention kids are noticed in their mid teens, often far too early as the playing field at that stage is not even at that, figuratively speaking, as some boys physically stand head and shoulders, literally speaking, above the rest.

Guys like Brian O鈥橠riscoll who has lit up the world rugby stage in recent years would have probably been looked over had he been Scottish, as he was not the biggest, fastest or strongest. Hard to believe now, but before the 2001 Lions tour of Australia he was considered to be 鈥渘ot big enough for international rugby.鈥� It is not surprising that it was a Kiwi, Graham Henry the then Lions coach, who gave him his shot. New Zealanders dedicate a large amount of their 鈥榩roper training鈥� time (and not just a warm up or extra summer training) to touch. New Zealand can never be criticised for lack of ability, and other few a few exceptions (i.e. Lomu) they are not massive (i.e. Carter, McCaw). Our vety own Tom Smith, not the biggest prop in the world but was certainly one of the best was recognised by Jim Telfer, a man who recognises ability over size.

Ability can be hard to notice but touch levels the playing field, and shows the ones with the ability. Once the ability has been recognised, power and speed can be gained. Touch also improves, fitness, defence shape, communication, support, angles of running, awareness, most importantly, which is what our game is drastically missing in years, it鈥檚 fun and entertaining!