Sport and attrition
Sport is one of the most wonderful activities that human society has ever devised and regulated.
Although I’ve being trying but struggling to identify other species capable of organising sporting contents – my presumption is that such games and leisure pastimes as animals, fish and birds partake in are probably either the product of natural baby or adolescent development (e.g. lion or bear cubs ‘play-fighting’ or pulling at their parents’ fair or limbs, all in the cause of learning to hunt/survive) or ‘one-off’ fun things to do invented on the spot borne of the peculiar circumstances and/or desirable objects of the moment – I’m sure that some of our naturalist readers and/or lovers of David Attenborough television series may be able to enlighten me to the contrary.
That acknowledged, the world of sport is inevitably beset with administrative, regulatory and ‘self- interest’ issues – nothing remarkable in that statement, one might say, it comes with the territory. There is barely a major or globally-popular sports that isn’t wrestling with them, whether it’s in the field of player health and welfare, the spotting and developing of latent talent, cheating, performance-enhancing drug use, ‘club versus country’, disciplinary matters, sports agents, salary or funding cap breaches and even the help provided (or lack of it) for former players who have difficulties coping with returning to ordinary ‘civilian’ life once their sporting careers are over.
Rugby is my sport of special interest but it occurred to me that, wherever you look, the issues I’ve swiftly listed above are virtually universal to all.
In English rugby union, any sane onlooker would probably begin – as I do – from a position where, if they were now able to begin again, those in charge of administering and regulating the game wouldn’t start from here, if you see what I mean.
Once rugby became officially professional in 1995 (players in one secret form or another – whether subsequently exposed and punished or not – had been ‘paid’ or compensated, or ‘assisted’, e.g. by ‘jobs-for-the-boys’ introductions, in one way or another virtually ever since the Rugby Football Union held its inaugural meeting in 1871) then rugby enthusiasts who had gone on to do well in their careers, plus those generally interested in making a fast buck, came flooding in and ran rings around the old fuddy-duddies who were selflessly administering the game, effectively out of their desire ‘to give something back’. The latter didn’t stand a chance.
These days rugby is facing huge issues as it develops around the world.
Player welfare ranks right at the top. From doctors and scientists who now recommend that young kids should not play contact rugby, or even play rugby at all, because of the risks of concussion etc., to those who can see that ever-growing commercial imperatives are placing demands upon players which inevitably affect their medium and long-term health, there is a crisis coming down the track.
Never mind that the switch from part-time playing (in the amateur days) to rugby as a full-time career has brought about massive changes to its participants – players these days are exponentially bigger and more powerful than in days of yore, resulting in bigger impacts, more ‘wear and tear’, shorter and shorter periods of ‘recovery’ between games, and shorter and shorter average length careers – it has also affected tactics to an enormous degree. Some might say “What did you expect?” when these ever-bigger and fitter players are running out onto pitches whose dimensions have not altered in 125 years.
I awoke this morning to media reports on the row currently bubbling up between England Rugby and the players’ Premiership clubs over this week’s exceptional tough training sessions organised in Brighton by England head coach Eddie Jones, as a result of which Bath winger Anthony Watson has suffered a broken jaw and uncapped Wasps flanker Sam Jones a broken leg.
It’s slightly ironic that the clubs – who place significant strains upon the welfare of their players on a week in week out basis anyway – are seeking to take Jones to task for ‘flogging dead horses’. Everybody in rugby is flogging dead horses. It’s effectively a case of “okay when I do it, not when you do and an injury results”.
The world is littered with former sportsmen, elite and not – those I know best are from rugby and soccer, but I don’t doubt that this applies to all sports – who are ‘crocked’ or living with serious aches and pains directly sustained from their sporting careers that affect their general quality of life. Some might say it’s simply a case of ‘occupational hazard’ and that said players had willingly accepted in advance that their later long-term aliments were likely to be an accompaniment to their period ‘at the top’, or even would do similar without hesitation if they could have their time over again, but that’s not quite the point.
Rugby has been my favourite sport for as long as I can remember but, having become a grandmother for the second time last month, I can honestly say – even if happily my new-born descendant should prove to be blessed with the natural physical and ball-playing attributes necessarily to make his mark in the game, I would counsel him against ever taking it up seriously. What’s an average five-year career in a great sport really worth when you may have to live another sixty with the consequences?
(It takes an oldie to write that sentence, of course …)
