The UAFC

With the young lad up as far as the heady heights of Form 1 rugby, it hasn't seemed to improve the standard of tackling from a lot of 'coached' kids as he has become older.

Back in the mini's days, you would have thought it was a mistake that a kid was tackled around the neck, but when a team does it 20 times in a match to the choruses of 'great tackle' from the coaching staff, you would begin to wonder how 'accidental' it is.

Again this week, one his friends was tackled around the neck and driven into the ground with the tackler's arm still locked around him - the outcome, an ambulance for an 11 year old who was carried off in a neck brace and a back protector.

In a week where rugby has lost another young player to what, by all accounts, was something that could not have been predicted, I think it is only time before we are reporting on another serious injury to kids even younger which, by watching what goes on on a Saturday/Wednesday, could be predicted.

I was watching my son play the other week when one of the opposition centres spear tackled his opposite number. Ref blew up immediately and sent the guy to the sidelines for 5 MINUTES!!!

My immediate reaction was to say ... "should be sent off". To which a gentleman standing next to me took umbrage with my comments. Turns out it was his son doing the tackling. I explained that no matter what the match, who the player was or if it was my team or not, that in my opinion any player making a spear tackle has to go. His response was that if it was ok for senior players to do it on TV it was ok for his son. Anyway he went on to say, his son's coach would be pleased with the "aggressive" tackling.

There lies the problem. If youngsters ee it on TV they will copy. Also in many ways I think the school game is too focussed on and and over-coached. How many guys stop playing when they leave school because of the pressures of having to win while playing at school.

It's a major problem at school and mini level. Kids just do not want to tackle low. Too many knees and boots flailing around in close proximity to the face.

The standard of reffing is the real issue from 1st year through to medallion from what I can see so far. My young lad is in his medallion year right now and the first part of the year was one injury after another due to the lack of referee intervention in taking the decision to send players off or at least have a word. My son is in the front row and to date had flaunted the scrum cap but that changed yesterday forever without me having to say a word.
Parents,coaches and some young players need to wise up and my heart goes out to the parents of the young Carrick Grammar palyer.

lovesthehardground wrote:
There lies the problem. If youngsters see it on TV they will copy. Also in many ways I think the school game is too focussed on and and over-coached. How many guys stop playing when they leave school because of the pressures of having to win while playing at school.

I have had the same problem with our U14s who were copying the tackles they had seen on TV, not realising how dangerous they could be. A quick chat on how, if it happened to them, they could spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair seemed to put a stop to it. High / dangerous tackles result in the offender sitting out the rest of the training session.

Luckily a high % of the parents are simply enthusiastic, but there are always a few who believe their wee fella (or girl) should be world class players (frustration in their own shortcoming as a player in their younger days, methinks) and I have seen a lot of pressure being put on kids to perform - so much so that they don't enjoy it. And that, I believe, is key to keeping kids at it - fun.

Our training sessions follow IRB & IRFU guidelines on incorporating fun games to develop skills, and a few parents really can't see this - they are harping on about getting them into specific positions .. scrummaging ... rucking. This all comes with time, and I suppose in a way we are lucky over here that, at this level of rugby, there aren't a load of clubs, and therefore not as much pressure on results etc. Luckily the coaches in Tenerife & Gran Canaria are of the same opinion as myself, so all our kids are progressing at the same speed, and I think that was reflected in the 30-30 draw in the first ever Canarian U14 game between the Lanza Volcanitos & Tenerife Rhinos at the weekend.

The standard of reffing at schoolds level is quite often appalling. I'm not having a go at teachers here, who by turning out to ref and coach are doing an invaluable job to the game but some of them are quite simply dreadful and a danger to the players.

Kids see it in tv and think it's class to dump tackle and bounce players as such, coaches are now teaching players to tackle high to stop the offload which obviously leaves minimal room for error.

As for the standard of reffing, the lower the level you go the poorer it will be, parents always seem to see things through tinted glasses as well, I would encourage anyone who feels they can do better to go out there do their course and give it a go themselves, I'm sure schools would love the assistance.

Driving past a school today and say another ambulance backed onto the rugby pitch.

hopefully that ambulance was only precautionary, Snipe.

29xThePain wrote:hopefully that ambulance was only precautionary, Snipe.

Sure hope you are right, but in my experience they only call an ambulance for a serious knock.

Wondering is it time for the IRFU to take a look at safety in Schools rugby. And I mean a proper look. Not some half-assed; ‘it was all right in my day’ brush off.

The schools game is so much more physical than it was even a decade ago.

someone earlier in the thread, think it was you Snipe, that mentioned that kids at junior and schoolboy level don't want to tackle low, a statement I would 100% agree with.

One of our teachers at Belfast Boys' Model always encouraged us to tackle low, to the point where he was hopping up and down the touchline. Whether the kids like it or not, tackling is an important part of the game, and tackling low will stop anyone.

I was stupid enough to attempt a tackle a bit too high on a player a lot bigger than me at uni last year. The result, broken nose. A minor knock, although I haven't played rugby since as I'm not confident in my tackling technique.

Cleaned up this topic a bit if anyone is wondering where their post went.

Nice job Fonz. Do you take in ironing too?

Lanzaman wrote:
I have had the same problem with our U14s who were copying the tackles they had seen on TV, not realising how dangerous they could be. A quick chat on how, if it happened to them, they could spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair seemed to put a stop to it. High / dangerous tackles result in the offender sitting out the rest of the training session.

I like your style Lanzaman, perhaps IRFU could issue similar guidelines to all concerned and school refs bin all high tackles to sort this out.

Rooster wrote:

Lanzaman wrote:
I have had the same problem with our U14s who were copying the tackles they had seen on TV, not realising how dangerous they could be. A quick chat on how, if it happened to them, they could spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair seemed to put a stop to it. High / dangerous tackles result in the offender sitting out the rest of the training session.

I like your style Lanzaman, perhaps IRFU could issue similar guidelines to all concerned and school refs bin all high tackles to sort this out.

Mini coaches are worse. I nearly came to blows with a geezer when I asked him to replace a player after his third high tackle in the first half. His colleague eventually told him to wind his neck in and that I was right. It emerged later in the club that the colleague was the father of the cub.