One of the game's greatest minds believes rugby needs 'radical change'
When you hear Wayne Smith, one of the finest minds in the game, talk about the need for “radical change”, of a sport struggling to “cope” with battalions of muscle-bound young men and of parents fearful to expose their children to it all, the grave reality of rugby’s future slaps you right across the face.
These words can’t be dismissed – as some scientific opinions are – as the calculations of a geek in a lab who “has never played the game and will never understand it”, nor the “scaremongering” of a mother who has seen her son bloodied and aching once too often.
This warning comes from a towering authority. Rugby has to change.
The brutality of the game is palpable wherever you look. Two rounds into the Six Nations, Mako Vunipola, Devin Toner, Ryan Wilson and Huw Jones have had their championships ended by injury. Stuart Hogg will do well to see any further action and so will Maro Itoje and CJ Stander, who reportedly played for over an hour with his face distorted by fractures suffered in Ireland’s vicious loss to England. Never mind the masses sidelined before a ball was kicked – Scotland alone had a pre-Championship injury list of 20; England were missing their co-captain Dylan Hartley and their former captain Chris Robshaw; Italy, shorn of last year’s top scorer, Matteo Minozzi.
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Taulupe Faletau was on the comeback trail from a broken arm but on his return to play this week, the Wales colossus broke it again. In New Zealand, Sam Cane is rehabilitating following a fractured neck and several months in a brace. Sam Warburton, the Welsh titan who led the Lions against him in 2017, was forced out of rugby at 29 after knee and neck operations – his immense career is all the more astonishing given the hideous gamut of injuries that have besieged him.
Wallaby Rob Horne, a year younger than Warburton, had his arm paralysed playing for Northampton Saints. In the past two months, the invasive and lingering effects of brain injury have ended the careers of Pat Lambie, Peter Grant and Ben John. Last week, former Australia centre Anthony Fainga’a gave a disturbing account of his post-concussion symptoms after announcing that he, too, was giving up the game.
“I’m probably only one more head knock away from being a vegetable or not being able to play with my kids,” Fainga’a said.
This is harrowing stuff, but it gets worse.
In less than a year, we have seen seven young men die in France, Canada, South Africa and Samoa – each of them gone after injuries sustained while playing rugby.
These inconvenient facts might be conveniently forgotten while we feast on the Six Nations frenzy. But we cannot revel in the savagery of the elite game while mourning the careers of those who succumb to the maelstrom.
“I’d never say you’re 100% fresh [going into a match],” Dan Cole, the England and Lions prop, said in 2017.
“Every tackle, every carry, every breakdown is almost like a car crash,” said former Scotland captain Kelly Brown earlier this month.
A study published in the BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine journal in November revealed that the average weight of a player in the Five or Six Nations had increased by 25% since 1955.
The following came from Shaun Longstaff, a former Scotland wing who is now an agent to some of the world’s best players, on professional clubs’ thirst to create larger, stronger, more explosive young men: “It’s definitely a game of how big can we get them, how quickly, and let’s see if they can cope – otherwise, we’ll move them on,” he said.
All of this is deeply alarming to Smith, a lithe play-maker in his day who won 17 Test caps for the All Blacks between 1980 and 1985 before embarking on a magnificent coaching career. He crafted great players and breath-taking teams, but more importantly, he created good people. Smith took a struggling Crusaders team in 1997 and moulded them into Super 12 champions, a franchise with a tangible culture that would dominate New Zealand rugby. He resurrected Northampton Saints, helped Sir Graham Henry then Steve Hansen to World Cup triumphs either side of turning the beleaguered Chiefs into back-to-back champions with kindred spirit, Dave Rennie.
Smith is a free-thinker and an innovator and when “the professor” talks about the beef in the game, rugby would be wise to listen.
“A guy my size would struggle to play now – you’d have to be really, really exceptional,” he says.
“It used to be a game for all sizes. That was the beauty of rugby. The way the game’s gone, that’s not the case anymore. I don’t know what the answers are, but somewhere we’ve got to be brave enough to make some changes that everyone buys into.
“The game has adapted before and retained its integrity so that’ll happen again. There’ll be an instant uproar but we’ve got to do something. If you were a young mother, you’d be pretty worried about your kid going into rugby, wouldn’t you?
“About a year-and-a-half ago, I was taking the World Cup around. I took it down to my old town. A kid came over from Rotorua with his dad. He was 6ft9, 180kg, and he was 13. 180kg. And he wasn’t really fat. I’d never seen anything like it.
“He was actually too big for rugby – he wasn’t allowed to play. I asked him what he was doing instead and he said boxing! Kids are getting bigger and bigger and I don’t know how the game is going to cope with it.
“We definitely don’t want to go the way of NFL with all that protection and helmets and substitutions, but that’s the way it’s going to go unless we make some radical changes. We’ve got a model there not to follow.”
Smith is confident rugby can kick free of these troubling times. There are highly dedicated people within the sport driven to make it safer, but there is no quick fix. In addressing – or attempting to address – the problem, Smith points to three areas of play he feels to be the most dangerous.
“We’ve got a lot of double-tackles today. It would be great if we could outlaw them! But just having your own personal coaching rule about who goes low and who goes above him would save a lot of head injuries because there are a hell of a lot of clashes in two-man tackles.
“High ball, do we say that only the receiving team can go up in the air for the ball? Or does everyone have to stay on the ground? Unless everyone stays on the ground, someone’s got to go above the crowd to claim the ball. Those contests are really dangerous, so perhaps the laws can be adjusted there.
“Getting over ball as a jackaler, that’s really dangerous, isn’t it? That’s a problem for the guy clearing out as well as the guy getting smashed.
“Sam Cane misjudged it [a clear-out] slightly, his head hit a hip and he breaks his neck. There are a lot of dangerous situations there.
“If you enter and you’ve won the contest, I can’t understand why they [arriving players] don’t have to leave you alone. If you’ve been good enough to make the tackle and get up, or come in when the tackle is made and got over the top, in those situations, maybe we’ve got to let that player have rights to the ball.
“Any rule change has a big effect on the game but even within that, teaching players to be aware going in, making sure their eyes are open, seeing players coming in to maim them and trying to move. There are some techniques you can use to do that as well.
“The most important thing is getting coaches to understand that the safest techniques are the most effective techniques. That tends to be forgotten with the development and professionalization of the game.”
Smith worries too about enjoyment being leeched from the youth game, lamenting the hoovering up of talent by the moneyed heavyweights of the New Zealand schools system.
“It’s the top level that sets an example, that’s your recruitment tool. Too many academies, too much training of kids from a young age, where back-yard rugby used to be the way to go in New Zealand.
“It was all about fun, the 10,000 hours you’re supposed to have to become an expert was gained in the back yard or the park. A lot of the fun’s been taken out of it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Simply outrageous and demonstrably false to say Finau’s tackle on Lynagh was “2 seconds late” In reality it was probably 0.5 seconds after he passed the ball. If you carry the ball at speed to within 5m of the defensive line you can expect to get tackled. Finau could have pulled out of it and not absolutely flattened him for sure, but there was going to be contact either way. He seems like a high risk selection at the moment, but there is no one else like him in NZ at the moment. His big tackles make the highlight reels but he is also a great athlete, very fast for such a big man, spent most of his days at lock so also very strong in the line out.
21 Go to commentsYes, Finau looks like the best option. Blackadder is not big enough for an international 6 - he should join the queue at 7. Frizzell had the power and heft and line-out height to play lock, so maybe that is where the ABs should be looking, not at a 7 who’s not big enough for 6, but at a lock who might have the agility to play 6, like Scott Barrett, or… Natai Ah Kuoi, who absolutely fits that bill, but seldom gets to play 6 because the Chiefs have so many loosies.
21 Go to commentsPaul Quinn was a National MP.
5 Go to commentsNo need to worry about losers’ mentality hysteria from Australia. Finau has all the attributes, I don't recall a high or no arms tackle from him, and his timing has been controlled very well since the round 3 Lynagh tackle. It's an easy decision for Razor, the only question is who should back him up from the bench. He can't be overworked like Squire was in his first full season.
21 Go to comments“Reds coach Les Kiss saying later: “I think every player has the right to feel safe.” Maybe Rugby is the wrong sport for people who want to feel safe..?
21 Go to commentsNot sure what the context was, but the highlights showed one scrum against Aussie where the baby Blacks were going backwards at a pace. The pack has been the issue since 2017, so they might be in for another reality check soon. This tournament should really have been two rounds, would have learned a lot more.
1 Go to commentsPeter Lakai has a ‘lot of size’? Since when? To Kirifi maybe. I think Laidlaw clearly saw he’s too small for 6 or 8, so plonked him at 7. Has potential to be Ardies understudy in black for 7.
5 Go to commentsDalton for skipper?
15 Go to commentsOh he's ‘Irish qualified’ isn't that convenient. If Ireland get any more Kiwis (and Aussie) in their backline they might need to run out in green and black kit soon. How is the supposed best rugby system in the world in need of trawling for journeyman Kiwi players?
2 Go to commentsCallum Grace is playing well now that he's finally back in his best position. But given it was Razor who somehow thought Grace was dynamic enough to be a No8 when he's clearly not, Im not sure he’d backtrack on that. Finau is risky with his style, and there's almost no point picking Blackadder when he can’t stay on the field more than five minutes.
21 Go to commentsThe team on paper has more supposed ‘stars’ than a lot of the sides they’re losing to. They’ve got the Razor-blues and aren't playing for Penney. He should jump before he's pushed.
1 Go to commentsProof. That if you lay dramatic instrumental hip hop music over a video of a skinny pale white kid running an unopposed zig zag on a training ground filled with rookies - it’ll look next-level epic!
13 Go to commentsIf they win the challenge Cup then it will have all been worth it. If they don’t, then maybe he should go. Lots of ppl seem to think very highly of him as a coach, but maybe he would be better working under someone. Any top sides looking for forwards coaches rn?
1 Go to commentsJason Ryan knows his craft as forwards coach and I'm sure he’ll hold sway with Scott Robertson of who he feels worthy of selection…his credentials validated when he put a 7xcaps between them front row...Ethan, Samisoni and Lomax on Ellis Park…Go the AB's…
21 Go to commentsFascinating. I’m optimistic about a team coached by Schmiddy, Cron and Parling
14 Go to commentsI think if Blackadder is fit, he has to be in the team. If he isn’t, Finau would be good, and I always thought Akira deserved more of a crack at it. I think he looked better than ppl gave him credit.
21 Go to commentsThanks again Nick and interesting comments from Parling about his lineout preferences. Bearing in mind what Schmidt has said about prioritising Oz based players initially we may not see Skeleton until the EOY trip to Ireland and the UK. To me that suggests that Cale has to be ready by then. In the meantime we get 3 jumpers by having 2 jumping locks and a Wright/Swinton/Holloway/Leota type of guy at 6. I think that he (Parling) would do well to coach Valentini and Wilson to jump more. Surely they could learn more about this?
14 Go to commentsdo what the ABs normally do and cruise around the South Pacific to cherry-pick the contenders
21 Go to commentsGood read, GP comes across as a very knowledgeable guy and pretty decent human to boot! Genuinely leaves me wondering though, how Australia’s second city could be in with a serious possibility of being left without a pro team. Just how does that get to happen? Credit to the team though, they’re performing pretty well under some horrible circumstances and pressure on their livelihoods. Whoever made the call to boot out DR, his staff and the structure/connections/succession plans he had put in place in unbelievably short order needs strung up by their most sensitive body parts. Thought that at the time and of course, events unfolded even worse than feared!
14 Go to commentsCan’t see an appetite to pick Brad Shields for obvious reasons, but Devan Flanders has got to be in with a shout.
21 Go to comments