There has been a storm brewing that has encompassed almost all of Rugby, and this revolves around the safety of the sport.
Old Patesians Head Coach Dave Parry believes his club has it right and much of Rugby has been stigmatised by select individuals:
“I think rugby is one of those sports where you either love it or you hate it you know and I think people do get it after a while, but you get some Pat mums going I’m not letting little Johnny play rugby since the Steve Thompson documentary on concussion it’s too dangerous.
“I think that’s had a massive effect, yeah I do and you know I I kind of I understand the safety element side of it but what nobody ever balances those arguments with what the benefits are.
“You’re introducing children to a team sport, they’ll have friends for life and I’ve still got friends that I started playing under nines you know and I never went to school with.”
This mentality is built off the ethos that Parry claims is the foundation of the club:
“I think that we’ve become a bit of a nanny state, little Johnny isn’t going to get injured, I don’t want him to get injured I don’t want him to get hurt, I don’t want this that and the other.
“But what they don’t do is balance up about, right okay so you don’t send them to rugby what are they doing on Sunday? What are they doing on a Tuesday night when they should be training? So we end up with more social problems.
“Our ethos is based around all inclusiveness, mixed ability side and everybody getting half a game at least if you took them to a game you know”.
When asked to respond to criticism on how he coaches players to deal with tackles and the physicality of the game Parry commented:
“We don’t mess about. We teach them what rugby is all about you know, we don’t sugarcoat it, it’s a hard physical game, and we teach them that we will give them different things to think about. But, we will empower them where lots of coaches will just go ‘right this is the move this what to do.’
“We’re trying to do a bit more than that, we’re trying to get them to think about the game think about where the space is, think about who’s a good runner with the ball who’s a good hands off-loader.
“So we bolt on different elements and try and make them more empowered than what they were, I think the kids really respect that and you know they grow and if you’re enjoying it you’re gonna keep going aren’t you.”
Furthermore, to combat rumours Parry, was quick to clear up the unjust concern over injury:
“In nearly nine years we had one broken arm and a bad back injury and that’s really the only two major injuries we had in that period of time, and there probably was something in the region of 50 kids involved over that period of time, over nine years”.
When asked about concerns over dwindling numbers the coach was quick to clarify:
“I think that rugby was struggling for numbers in the in the youth, but I think the old Pats probably buck the trend a little bit because um I think uh you see a lot of the local clubs stream their players have an A and a B team um and I think that turns a lot of kids off um you know certainly.
“I run the under 16s because my middle son is playing under 16s and I also run under 11s. Okay my under 11s have 48 kids joined all right so I don’t see any dropping off of numbers I actually see increasing in numbers!”
