With concern around concussion and player welfare in rugby continuing to pose serious challenges to participation at grassroots level, former Mail on Sunday rugby correspondent and author of ‘Concussed’, Sam Peters, highlights what is being done by leading independent schools and businesses to safeguard the future of the sport and those who play it.
Two years ago Sally-Anne Huang, High Master of St Paul’s School, London, who were a founding member of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), publicly voiced her concerns about rugby’s future in schools. Alarming headlines about injuries, competition from other sports, and increasing polarisation within the game have led some schools to struggle for numbers while others recruit scholarship players to physically dominate opponents. Huang warned that rugby’s traditional place in school life is now under threat. Two centuries after William Webb Ellis reportedly picked up the ball and ran with it, many within rugby agree the grassroots game faces an existential challenge…