However critics said school injury statistics

were not clear cut as teachers were generally more cautious and children were

often kept on the bench even if they had slight injuries such as a muscle tear.

Brian Moore, the English former rugby union

hooker, said that unless the injuries were compared against other sports they

were meaningless. “Without a ranking of risk per sport parents have no way of

knowing whether rugby is any more dangerous than any other sport and cannot

make a reasoned choice. To try and prevent sport being promoted on the basis of

such flawed methodology is not only poor it is wrong. “There is no mention of

the significant benefits of kids playing sport, rugby or otherwise, in terms of

better health, increased alertness in class and thus better education. “There

is no mention of the significant lessons for life that playing a team sport

brings – camaraderie; anti-social behavior modification; learning to win/lose/

teamwork/ leadership and so on.”

Studies have found most rugby injuries occur

during the tackle but that scrums are the most dangerous phase of play. Recent

rule changes, such as the introduction of non-contested scrums, may have

reduced the number of permanently disabling spinal injuries, but their

effectiveness has yet to be properly evaluated, the researchers say. Yet,

insufficient attention has been paid to the tackle as the major cause of injury

in this collision sport.

---

Brian Moore proposes to...

Some rugby rules have changed, which has reduced the number of

injuries during...

Give a title to the second paragraph (“However critics … collision

sport”)