Public School to Drop Rugby After Payouts

telegraph.co.uk ^ | 19/06/2002 | By Becky Barrow

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A leading public school is planning to stop its pupils playing rugby partly because of increasing fears of litigation over injuries.

Richard Youdale, the headmaster of the 700-pupil King's School, Ely, Cambs, wrote to parents, who pay fees of more than £15,000 per year, explaining that rugby would be phased out over the next four years to be replaced by hockey, rowing and football.

In the letter, which acknowledged that the decision "will cause distress in a number of quarters", he explained: "Since rugby is a game which is notoriously difficult to referee and increasingly subject to litigation, it is perhaps not surprising that schools have begun to find it harder to secure the services of referees and team coaches."

One mother at the school, who did not want to be named, said parents had voiced their opposition to the move at a sports day last Saturday. She said: "Eliminating rugby is a highly retrograde step."

Mr Youdale said the decision was not principally to do with the threat of litigation, but there have been a number of cases of pupils successfully suing for serious injuries sustained while playing rugby. Last year, Ramsey Elshafey won £100,000 in compensation after his hopes of becoming a dentist were destroyed by a tackle which caused serious ligament damage to his neck and back.

His former school, Newcastle-under-Lyme Grammar School, has no plans to drop the sport.

At most schools parents take out insurance, costing less than £5 per term, which covers their children if an accident occurs.

This type of insurance is not offered to parents at King's School because the school's own cover means that additional insurance is not required, according to a spokesman.

The spokesman added that the decision was "a blink of an eyelid in our school history". Founded more than 1,000 years ago, former pupils include Edward the Confessor.

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It seems like this sort of crap is happening everywhere nowadays.

Lawyers on the touchlines

Richard Youdale, the headmaster of the King's School, Ely, is phasing out rugby because, he says, it's not suitable for a co-educational school.

Since the King's School has been co-educational for 30 years, it seems likely that another reason given by the headmaster is the more pressing - fear of sanatorium lawyers, an unpleasant and increasingly familiar after-effect of a painful tackle.

With all the attention of the moment given over to grown-ups playing in the World Cup, it's easy to forget how little sport children play. Teachers have fewer hours to supervise sport, and playing fields are under constant threat of development.

And, if children aren't playing sport, where are the next batch of sporting heroes going to come from? Even the children who don't turn into David Beckham or Lawrence Dallaglio benefit from school sport - obesity among children has nearly doubled in the past decade as they turn from the playing field to computer games and television.

Fear of lawyers is a perfectly understandable malady, but Mr Youdale should try to conquer it.

[shaggy eel]

,,, rugby is a rough and tumble game. I played it at primary school (elementary) and right thru secondary (high school). It's a national obsession here. If this sort of legal fear crap was tried here there would be a revolution.