Azzuri
Trevor Allan (34)
Ten games of Rugby for the majority of opens players (14 + games for the rep players) is hardly a big ask IMO. Especially when you consider that many of these lads would have been playing two games of rugby a weekend up to the age of 16 before their big bad Rugby masters and conflicting game times restricted opens players playing club and opens School Rugby.
I'm sure many opens players go on to colts after school where there are a minimum of 18 games a season plus four if they are lucky enough to make finals. So why would you want to limit exposure to the sort of competition that will help prepare their bodies for the serious leap into colts footy and in some cases Grade.
Injuries in our sport are unfortunately unavoidable and inevitable and have ended many a promising career. Limiting the number of games must certainly have a statistical impact on limiting the risk of season/career ending injury but in doing so aren't we also going to limit the exposure to the sort of hard competition the lads will need to help ease the transition to post school Rugby?
Soon we will be down to four games a year because it's been discovered that Schoolboy Rugby is responsible for world hunger and child poverty ..... and by 2025 the referees will be joined on the field by a distinguished gentleman with a handlebar moustache, wearing a top hat and walking briskly ahead of attacking players waving a red flag and ringing his big brass bell warning the defending team of an impending collision...
To quote the introduction of a well known TV series from the early 1960's
...."There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of limited imagination. It is an area which we call the Nanny Zone.
I'm sure many opens players go on to colts after school where there are a minimum of 18 games a season plus four if they are lucky enough to make finals. So why would you want to limit exposure to the sort of competition that will help prepare their bodies for the serious leap into colts footy and in some cases Grade.
Injuries in our sport are unfortunately unavoidable and inevitable and have ended many a promising career. Limiting the number of games must certainly have a statistical impact on limiting the risk of season/career ending injury but in doing so aren't we also going to limit the exposure to the sort of hard competition the lads will need to help ease the transition to post school Rugby?
Soon we will be down to four games a year because it's been discovered that Schoolboy Rugby is responsible for world hunger and child poverty ..... and by 2025 the referees will be joined on the field by a distinguished gentleman with a handlebar moustache, wearing a top hat and walking briskly ahead of attacking players waving a red flag and ringing his big brass bell warning the defending team of an impending collision...
To quote the introduction of a well known TV series from the early 1960's
...."There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of limited imagination. It is an area which we call the Nanny Zone.