Tackling Rugby

On 29 January 2011, Benjamin Robinson was playing rugby for his school. During the match he sustained a concussion but was not taken off, and was allowed to continue with the game, in which he endured a second impact. When play ended, he collapsed, dying two days later as a result of his injuries. Every week young children are hospitalized on the playing fields of Britain. Yet the subject is rarely investigated, injury data are not systematically collected, and as a result any real attempt to work out how to make youth rugby safer is flawed. Using meticulous, peer-reviewed research, leading public health specialist Allyson M. Pollock sets out the true risks associated with the sport, raising uncomfortable questions for politicians and the educational authorities.