Limiting contact training is right step
I WAS fascinated by World Rugby's report this week which was revealed to help protect player welfare.
It suggested limiting full-contact training to 15 minutes per week.
First of all, let me say that anything being done to improve player welfare has my full support because rugby needs to continue making steps to protect those on the field.
When you stop and think about it, 15 minutes is next to no time at all and it will be interesting to see how teams adopting the new proposals fare.
I'm sure some head coaches and directors of rugby will be concerned about their players being underdone for matches.
I think that is a genuine worry – how much full contact you do in a week is such a fine balance. You have to do some to be battle hardened ready for the weekend match. But you also don't want to overdo it and see players suffer injury in training. We all know the problems this generation of players and the one before it has had with concussion.
So, on the whole, I think the proposal is a good one. I am going to be fascinated to see how it plays out and how it is managed moving forwards.
