Halliday: World Rugby is sleepwalking its way towards disaster over brain injuries.
This article is from an exclusive by Daniel Schofield of www.telegraph.co.uk
Simon Halliday departed his role as European Professional Club Rugby chairman on Tuesday with a warning that World Rugby is sleepwalking its way towards disaster over brain injuries after revealing his own children do not play the sport due to safety concerns.
A former England, Bath and Harlequins centre, Halliday said that the blueprint for rugby’s future prosperity is overshadowed by the existential crisis that rugby faces over a concussion lawsuit involving dozens of former players.
That has hit close to home for Halliday whose wife has banned his young sons playing rugby while the elite game remains a frightening spectacle. World Rugby has commissioned studies examining the effects of fewer replacements and lower tackle heights, but Halliday insists the governing body must act far more decisively.
“Change some laws fast,” Halliday exclusively told Daniel Schofield of the Daily Telegraph.
“Get on with it. Why are you waiting? I am sick and tired of hearing platitudes. Make some decisions. You can commission as many reports as you like, but all I know is that my wife won’t let my boys play rugby. She is not a shrinking violet, but she says ‘no way am I letting them play. Look at the head shots they take.’ Participation levels everywhere are down, down, down. Make decisions and you will bring people back.”
World Rugby’s recent announcement that it wants to limit contact training to a maximum of 15 minutes being advisory rather than mandatory is an example of Halliday’s point. “If they have the evidence why do not just act?” he says. “What are you waiting for?”
Halliday missed the advent of professionalism and believes a lot of the solutions to rugby’s present problems are to be found in previous era, including fewer replacements and better tackle technique.
“It is soul destroying to see those players suffering that because the game was different back in my day,” Halliday said.
“The cuts, the wounds and the bruises were inflicted without cameras. There was a lot more blood and you gained a lot more scars from people who wanted to have a go at you. You took more of a kicking but we aren’t wondering about what our names are.”
“Get on with it. Why are you waiting? I am sick and tired of hearing platitudes. Make some decisions.”