Personal injury news

Top rugby coach calls for scrums to be banned

A former top rugby coach has called for the scrum to be scrapped as concerns mount over the number of severe personal injuries that are blighting the game.

Alan Jones, who trained the Australian national team in the 1980s, has made his appeal after it was revealed that over 100 players registered on the books of Britain's Rugby Football Union have suffered paralysing injuries as a result of playing the game. In addition, there are more than 36,000 school rugby injuries every year, with dozens of them serious and leaving young players with irreparable spinal cord injuries.

The ex-coach has arranged a meeting at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, where some of rugby's most senior figures will gather to discuss the matter. Jones told reporters, "Perhaps the game has to think about getting rid of the scrum altogether."

The issue is a subject of great contention and is destined to stoke passions on both sides of the debate, and one advocate of banning the scrum is Ali Johnson, a rugby player who was confined to a wheelchair after suffering a spinal cord injury. He appealed for the game's governing body to take the subject seriously, saying, "There is a case for banning the scrum.

"It'd take a lot away from the game but it should be looked at because players are becoming so much stronger."

More information about rugby in Britain can be found at http://www.rfu.com/.