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French coach: Assertion that 'rugby kills' outrageous

Tributes are paid to Nicolas Chauvin. Photo / Getty Images

Pau academy coach James Coughlan has responded to the backlash against rugby following the death of 19-year-old Stade Francais academy player Nicolas Chauvin.

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Chauvin broke his neck during an academy match less than two weeks ago. He suffered a cardiac arrest and brain damage, dying three days later.

“It’s incredibly sad. It’s an extremely difficult time for his family, I can’t imagine what they’re going through,” Coughland said in an interview with RTÉ 2fm’s Game On.

“But I’m thinking of the Gaelic guys who would have died on the pitch as well and that’s why we have cardiac units and defibrillators at all the GAA grounds because of the sudden death syndrome.

“It’s just that, an accident. It’s extremely sad and difficult for everyone to understand. But if we get caught up with it and start changing rules and laws and making decisions based on what’s happened… sometimes it’s just an accident.”

An editorial in French newspaper L’Equipe claimed rugby “nobody can pretend there is any doubt anymore. Rugby kills.” Coughlan weighed in on the statement during his interview.

“It’s an outrageous statement to make. For anyone to say that rugby kills… when you go to the shop, you could step out on the street and a bus hits you. That’s the equivalent of what happened.

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“I think if we lose sight of that it’s a slippery slope.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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