Rugby, a game for all shapes and sizes. Well, it used to be, now you simply have to be huge.
Rugby was always a unique sport in that if you were short and fat and found running tiresome there was a place for you, it was called the front row. If you were of a more wiry build and did not like physical contact you wore the number 10 shirt. If you were skinny but could run like the wind, you would play on the wing.
Many of these stereotypes may still exist in the lower grades of club rugby but they are no longer the case at international level; except maybe many of the number ten’s not tackling.
This Rugby World Cup has brought home how defensive the game has become and how linked to that defence is a required physical presence. South Africa in their game against the All Blacks made 131 tackles and missed a further 20. While in the other semi final it was Australia who made the most tackles in their game against Argentina, making 142 and missing 33 on top of that.
The fitness levels and physical requirements to make that many tackles is unbelievable. However what is more incredible is the impact so many tackles must have on the bodies of these athletes.
World Rugby has upped its monitoring of possible head injuries with concussion tests, and we have seen many a player not happy about being dragged from the pitch to undergo such a test, but it is ultimately for their own good.
The word is the World Rugby are aware of the dilemma facing them as a governing body and a sport. The jolting tackle that sees and attacking player driven backwards is one of the great spectacles in the game. Who can ever forget some of the tackles put in by the Samoan Brian Lima, otherwise known as “The Chiropractor,” for obvious reasons. Yet World Rugby knows that as players become bigger and heavier the impact of such tackles is no laughing matter. Yet they cannot impose size and weight restrictions on players or teams, so what do they do?
This World Cup has been a huge success with grounds hosting games regularly sold out. Many of the games have been exciting affairs and there has been some controversy along the way. World Rugby will no doubt be pleased there was at least one upset, Japan beating South Africa, but true fans of the game would like to see the possibility of more of these. Yet such a thing is still very unlikely. There is no doubt though that this tournament has lifted the game and Rugby’s World Cup to a new level.
The big problem that rugby faces now is convincing young people that it is a game for them. Some will look at the almost superhuman size of the top athletes and realise they will never be big enough, and will walk away. Which is a great shame. Sadly many young sportspeople, and their parents, have dreams of playing at the top level and all the trappings that come with that status. So if Rugby is an avenue closed to them they will try another sport.
Rugby the game offers so much more than money and fame at club level. The camaraderie found in a rugby club is hard to match in any other sport. The bond of togetherness, as every single player knows that he has to put his body on the line for the good of the team, is almost unparalleled. Yet it has to be experienced to be understood and believed. The hard task facing World Rugby is convincing young boys and girls just how special it is and maintaining playing numbers at the grassroots level.
Rugby may have almost religion status in Wales, South Africa and New Zealand, but not in many of the other nations who played at this World Cup, so keeping participation levels up when few know they have the opportunity to reach the pinnacle will be hard.
