Jeff Probyn column: We must offer women players more protection
The show was hosted by John Inverdale with me and Canadian international big Norm Hadley where the guests were invited to discuss what had happened in the previous day’s games.
Wasps had played Bath and I had received a badly cut ear that was stitched at pitch side and had more than trebled in size overnight. After we had reviewed the games, a short clip of England women versus Holland women was played. We were then asked us for our comments, not on the actual game but what we thought of women playing. I said I thought they played well but would not want my wife or daughter to play because of the risk of injury, although if girls wanted to play, it was up to them.
When asked, Norm replied while flicking my ear, “well I wouldn’t want my girlfriend to look like Jeff”. The show ended and as far as we were concerned that was that – but the BBC were inundated with calls complaining about what we had said, in fact, they had so many calls that it was the first and only time that Rugby Special was featured on the complaints programme, Points of View. We were stunned at the response to what we felt were pretty innocuous answers to John’s question and, as a result, I was asked to go and take a training session at Richmond for the women’s team.
After all the fuss had died down, I was invited by the then president of the women’s game, Rosie Goldberg, to watch a match at Twickenham where we discussed just how much the women’s game had to grow to become sustainable as a sport. With just a couple of thousand registered players, it was struggling but, as Rosie said, the fuss around that Rugby Special programme had given the sport a welcome boost.
Although I was singled out as being opposed to the women’s rugby, I am actually quite a fan, as I believe they play a purer and technically better game than the men.
The physical limitations of women stop them playing ‘the bully style, bigger is best’ rugby that is now so common in the Premiership, thus allowing for a more skill-based passing game.
Despite its expediential growth, women’s rugby still numbers only around 25,000 senior players which equates to just under 14 adult players per club in England. But it is still the largest number of female players anywhere in the world.
As I say, I am a fan, but I have always had one major concern about the women’s game which is the reason I would not want my daughter to play and I know what I am about to say will no doubt bring a torrent of protests from women players. The physical limitations that make the women’s game so exciting also leaves them open to injury in the same way as young male players, so I believe the women’s game should be played always using the under 20 variation.
The under 20 variations were bought in to help reduce the number of injuries in the youth game because of the physical limitations of young men who were yet to develop the muscular physique that enabled them to take the knocks and bumps that are part of the senior game.
If young men under 20 lack the physical make-up to play the full game, it would seem logical to assume that a majority of women of any age would also lack the physical makeup and so should be protected in a similar way to young men. This would in no way detract from the enjoyment and technical skills that are needed to play and should reduce the risks of injury.
There are large numbers of young girls playing the game at minis and juniors where touch and tag are the main forms of the game and where contact is at a minimum, but as contact is slowly introduced there is a massive fall in the number of girls that continue to play.
It may be that a different set of variations based on gender differences would need to be drafted to enable more growth in the women’s game, but I am sure there would be a strong and vocal protest against making any changes.
Sadly, the women’s game in England suffered a second fatality this week, when Lily Partridge aged 23 collapsed after suffering a head injury during training for her county team. The first girl to be severely injured was Sarah Chesters (also 23) in 2014, where she was injured in a tackle and tragically died a month later. In the game of rugby as a whole, catastrophic injury and death are thankfully extremely rare, so two in the women’s game in such a relatively short time should ring alarm bells at World Rugby.
The frequency of these two very serious incidents is too close for comfort and steps should be taken to review the dangers that face young women who are currently playing the same game as men.
If it is found that the game in its current form provides too great a risk for young women, then changes should be bought in immediately to guarantee their safety and enjoyment of our great game.
