One of the game's greatest minds believes rugby needs 'radical change'
When you hear Wayne Smith, one of the finest minds in the game, talk about the need for “radical change”, of a sport struggling to “cope” with battalions of muscle-bound young men and of parents fearful to expose their children to it all, the grave reality of rugby’s future slaps you right across the face.
These words can’t be dismissed – as some scientific opinions are – as the calculations of a geek in a lab who “has never played the game and will never understand it”, nor the “scaremongering” of a mother who has seen her son bloodied and aching once too often.
This warning comes from a towering authority. Rugby has to change.
The brutality of the game is palpable wherever you look. Two rounds into the Six Nations, Mako Vunipola, Devin Toner, Ryan Wilson and Huw Jones have had their championships ended by injury. Stuart Hogg will do well to see any further action and so will Maro Itoje and CJ Stander, who reportedly played for over an hour with his face distorted by fractures suffered in Ireland’s vicious loss to England. Never mind the masses sidelined before a ball was kicked – Scotland alone had a pre-Championship injury list of 20; England were missing their co-captain Dylan Hartley and their former captain Chris Robshaw; Italy, shorn of last year’s top scorer, Matteo Minozzi.
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Taulupe Faletau was on the comeback trail from a broken arm but on his return to play this week, the Wales colossus broke it again. In New Zealand, Sam Cane is rehabilitating following a fractured neck and several months in a brace. Sam Warburton, the Welsh titan who led the Lions against him in 2017, was forced out of rugby at 29 after knee and neck operations – his immense career is all the more astonishing given the hideous gamut of injuries that have besieged him.
Wallaby Rob Horne, a year younger than Warburton, had his arm paralysed playing for Northampton Saints. In the past two months, the invasive and lingering effects of brain injury have ended the careers of Pat Lambie, Peter Grant and Ben John. Last week, former Australia centre Anthony Fainga’a gave a disturbing account of his post-concussion symptoms after announcing that he, too, was giving up the game.
“I’m probably only one more head knock away from being a vegetable or not being able to play with my kids,” Fainga’a said.
This is harrowing stuff, but it gets worse.
In less than a year, we have seen seven young men die in France, Canada, South Africa and Samoa – each of them gone after injuries sustained while playing rugby.
These inconvenient facts might be conveniently forgotten while we feast on the Six Nations frenzy. But we cannot revel in the savagery of the elite game while mourning the careers of those who succumb to the maelstrom.
“I’d never say you’re 100% fresh [going into a match],” Dan Cole, the England and Lions prop, said in 2017.
“Every tackle, every carry, every breakdown is almost like a car crash,” said former Scotland captain Kelly Brown earlier this month.
A study published in the BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine journal in November revealed that the average weight of a player in the Five or Six Nations had increased by 25% since 1955.
The following came from Shaun Longstaff, a former Scotland wing who is now an agent to some of the world’s best players, on professional clubs’ thirst to create larger, stronger, more explosive young men: “It’s definitely a game of how big can we get them, how quickly, and let’s see if they can cope – otherwise, we’ll move them on,” he said.
All of this is deeply alarming to Smith, a lithe play-maker in his day who won 17 Test caps for the All Blacks between 1980 and 1985 before embarking on a magnificent coaching career. He crafted great players and breath-taking teams, but more importantly, he created good people. Smith took a struggling Crusaders team in 1997 and moulded them into Super 12 champions, a franchise with a tangible culture that would dominate New Zealand rugby. He resurrected Northampton Saints, helped Sir Graham Henry then Steve Hansen to World Cup triumphs either side of turning the beleaguered Chiefs into back-to-back champions with kindred spirit, Dave Rennie.
Smith is a free-thinker and an innovator and when “the professor” talks about the beef in the game, rugby would be wise to listen.
“A guy my size would struggle to play now – you’d have to be really, really exceptional,” he says.
“It used to be a game for all sizes. That was the beauty of rugby. The way the game’s gone, that’s not the case anymore. I don’t know what the answers are, but somewhere we’ve got to be brave enough to make some changes that everyone buys into.
“The game has adapted before and retained its integrity so that’ll happen again. There’ll be an instant uproar but we’ve got to do something. If you were a young mother, you’d be pretty worried about your kid going into rugby, wouldn’t you?
“About a year-and-a-half ago, I was taking the World Cup around. I took it down to my old town. A kid came over from Rotorua with his dad. He was 6ft9, 180kg, and he was 13. 180kg. And he wasn’t really fat. I’d never seen anything like it.
“He was actually too big for rugby – he wasn’t allowed to play. I asked him what he was doing instead and he said boxing! Kids are getting bigger and bigger and I don’t know how the game is going to cope with it.
“We definitely don’t want to go the way of NFL with all that protection and helmets and substitutions, but that’s the way it’s going to go unless we make some radical changes. We’ve got a model there not to follow.”
Smith is confident rugby can kick free of these troubling times. There are highly dedicated people within the sport driven to make it safer, but there is no quick fix. In addressing – or attempting to address – the problem, Smith points to three areas of play he feels to be the most dangerous.
“We’ve got a lot of double-tackles today. It would be great if we could outlaw them! But just having your own personal coaching rule about who goes low and who goes above him would save a lot of head injuries because there are a hell of a lot of clashes in two-man tackles.
“High ball, do we say that only the receiving team can go up in the air for the ball? Or does everyone have to stay on the ground? Unless everyone stays on the ground, someone’s got to go above the crowd to claim the ball. Those contests are really dangerous, so perhaps the laws can be adjusted there.
“Getting over ball as a jackaler, that’s really dangerous, isn’t it? That’s a problem for the guy clearing out as well as the guy getting smashed.
“Sam Cane misjudged it [a clear-out] slightly, his head hit a hip and he breaks his neck. There are a lot of dangerous situations there.
“If you enter and you’ve won the contest, I can’t understand why they [arriving players] don’t have to leave you alone. If you’ve been good enough to make the tackle and get up, or come in when the tackle is made and got over the top, in those situations, maybe we’ve got to let that player have rights to the ball.
“Any rule change has a big effect on the game but even within that, teaching players to be aware going in, making sure their eyes are open, seeing players coming in to maim them and trying to move. There are some techniques you can use to do that as well.
“The most important thing is getting coaches to understand that the safest techniques are the most effective techniques. That tends to be forgotten with the development and professionalization of the game.”
Smith worries too about enjoyment being leeched from the youth game, lamenting the hoovering up of talent by the moneyed heavyweights of the New Zealand schools system.
“It’s the top level that sets an example, that’s your recruitment tool. Too many academies, too much training of kids from a young age, where back-yard rugby used to be the way to go in New Zealand.
“It was all about fun, the 10,000 hours you’re supposed to have to become an expert was gained in the back yard or the park. A lot of the fun’s been taken out of it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I think Finau to start Blackadder to come on. Poss Prokter instead of Ioane, haven't seen much from Reiko so far this year.
10 Go to commentsJoe will have had a good chat with Dave Rennie, a smart move to begin with while it’s doubtful Fast Eddie will be consulted? Plenty of Aus players hitting top form so they should go OK.
3 Go to commentsMmm. Not sure I like this article or see it as necessary.
1 Go to commentsBlackadder but no Finau! 😀 It’s Razor so you are probably right, plus Taylor at 2…
10 Go to commentsThe strongest possible AB side would actually include Aaron Smith, Bodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Leicester Fainga'anuku, Shannon Frizzel.. don’t get me started on the rest of the injury hit brigade that got flung on the heap so left. Many a whole not getting filled as of yet.
10 Go to commentsI don’t think anyone knows what Schmidt will do, one thing is certain it ain’t gonna be all the picks we on the keyboard will think. My impression of him is that he will be looking at who can step up and what is the best combination. He will ignore individuals as he looks for guys who can build a powerful team and not just guys who can make a flashy run or ignore the winger as they want to score themselves.
3 Go to commentsSome dumb selections there. Not Porecki Not Donaldson Not Gordon Not Lonegran - both Not Nic White - Fines instead Not Liam Wright Not Paisami Definitely not Vunivalu Other than that not bad.
3 Go to commentsI've never been convinced that Patty T is a test match all black. Otherwise I probably agree it's the best side available to beat the poms. Caveat that Codie Taylor is yet to be seen and could very likely warrant selection by June. I hope that Razor brings the young loosies, half backs and locks into the training squad and develops/ selects the best
10 Go to commentsYou doing the same thing I disliked about the example of Samisoni Taukei'aho, Nick. He’s great the way he is, you’re trying to do what modern-day coaches frustrate me doing, turning everyone into the perfect athlete. Next thing you’ll be telling me you’ll bench him until he’s hit that arbitrary marker, and can’t overtake the current guy who’s doing all his workons. He’s a young Kieran Read, through and through, plays wide and has threat, mainly (and evident in your clips) through his two hand carry and speed. Just let him work on that, or whatever he wants, and determine his own future. Play God and you risk the players going sideways, like Read did, instead of being a Toutai Kefu. I mean I was in the same camp for a while, wanting our tight five to have the size, and carry ability, as the teams they were getting beat by. Now I’m starting to believe those teams just have better skilled and practiced individuals, bigger by upwards of 5kg sometimes, sure, but more influentially they have those intrinsic skills of trust and awareness. Basically our guys just didn’t know wtf they were doing. Don’t think I’m trying to prove a point here but hasn’t Caleb Clarke been in much better form this year, or does he just ‘look’ better now that he’s not always trying to use his size?
44 Go to commentsThe pack lacks a little in height for the line out and I wouldn’t be completely convinced by some of the combinations till we see it in action.
10 Go to commentsThe side is good but lacks experience. International playing bona fides udually trumps super rugby form for good reason. And incumbents are usually stuck with. Codie Taylor should start or come off the bench. B Barrett will start at fullback. Blackadder has not earned the position, Finau has. TJs experience and competitiveness earns him a starting role, Christie or Ratima off the bench
10 Go to commentsPretty good side. Scott Barrett should be the captain. Ethan Blackadder a great choice at blindside. He is going to go from strength to strength having made a couple of starts for the Crusaders. Scott Robertson rates him highly. Perenara could start a no 9.
10 Go to commentsI question and with respect. Was enough done over the last few years to bring through new blood knowing the Whitelocks and co couldn’t last forever. There should have been more done to future proof the team. New squad new coach, he and they weren’t set up well. IMO
6 Go to commentsJacobsen will definitely be in the 23
10 Go to commentsLots of discussion points, Ben, but two glaring follies IMO: 1. Blackadder at 6. Has done nothing so far this season to justify his selection. Did you see him going backwards in contact at the weekend? Simply has not got the physical presence at 6: we need a Scott Barrett or a Finau (or wildcard Ah Kuoi), beasts who are big enough to play lock, like Frizzell. If Barret played at 6, Paddy could be joined at lock by Vai’i or one of the young giants we need to promote, like Darry or Lord (if he ever gets on the field). Blackadder best left to join the queue for 7. 2. Not even a mention for Christie? Ratima gets caught at crucial times at the back of the ruck when he hesitates on the pass. The only way he starts would be if Christie and TJ are injured.
10 Go to commentsWhat a dagg in more ways than one
6 Go to commentsRegroup come back next year but sack some of the coaching team and don't be like the ABs last minute sacking. If Crusaders don't do well ABs don't do well.
5 Go to commentsProctor Definitely inform again this year had a hell of a season last year and this year is looking even better. Still mixed feelings about Ioane tho.
4 Go to commentsDagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
6 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to comments