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Woodward: 'The most dangerous thing for rugby to do is to do nothing'
By AAP
Former England coach Clive Woodward welcomed news that a group of former players are set to take legal action against rugby union's governing bodies after suffering brain damage they say was the result of concussions, calling it a watershed moment.
England's World Cup-winning prop Steve Thompson said this week that he had no memory of the 2003 final and, along with several other former players, held the sport's various governing bodies responsible for their failure to adequately protect players from long-term mental impairment.
Woodward said it pained him to see the plight of the players and that the sport must take steps to improve safety.
"After the stand taken by Steve Thompson, Alix Popham, Michael Lipman and others, rugby must address the issues and take the initiative," the 64-year-old wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
"In such a physical game, player welfare is everything and, if rugby is to thrive, we must acknowledge this fully, with a view to making the present and future much safer at every level of the game.
"The physical nature of rugby is a huge part of its appeal but we have definitely gone so far down that path that 'physicality' has overpowered the game."
Rugby Players Association (RPA) Chief Executive Damian Hopley said training methods should be reviewed as part of measures to help reduce concussions and Woodward concurred.
"The workload needs to be controlled and quantified and aligned between club and country," Woodward wrote. "Safety protocols must be policed. Every contact and scrummaging session must be independently reviewed.
"The most dangerous thing for rugby to do is to do nothing... If rugby is considered too dangerous, participation will fall."
(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Sam Holmes)
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I like Andy’s critical approach to all hot issues especially when it comes to the rugby big “bosses”. However, sorry Andy, I don’t support your “we shouldn’t be questioning the integrity of Karl Dickson or any other official”. May I ask why? They do have a lot of responsibility, but they are people like us with all their sins and weaknesses. We have to respect their decision during the games, but why they became untouchable afterwards and people cannot even criticize them and the ones, who does express their concerns, got punished for publicly analyzing their mistakes and asking questions. If they believe they did right, there shouldn’t be a problem for any of the refs to answer these “questions” publicly. I don’t really remember such cases. However, I do remember how Craig Joubert shown his running skills in 2015 or Pascal Gauzere shined in Cardiff in 2021. I do believe that Rassie, as anybody else, had a full right to share his vision of Nic Berry’s performance the same year. I do not support the hate in any form especially in public one, but creating the cast of untouchable refs and rugby bosses is not for me. As for Karl, he had all means to question his appointment for the game and since I don’t now whether he did it, blaming just RFU wouldn’t be quite correct at this moment. I love the game of rugby and almost every time I watch it I don’t support any team, I just wanna see the good game and fair referring. Sorry, Karl. last Saturday you got my Craig Joubert”s award of the round. It is up to Karl to prove that I am wrong, not to Andy or RFU’s corporate bla-bla-bla. Something like that…
Go to commentswell remember the blues had a guy called jed rowlands for a season. remember scott took his coaching team with him give him time
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