Don't get me wrong i love this game and think its the best in the world but analysing the recent injuries to players of the last few years is it fair on there bodies,young enthusiastic kids beefed up to the max full time training running at each other from 10 meter's is it fair on them?.You only have to look at the number of shoulder injuries of late to conclude that impact levels are extremely high. Now i am no killjoy ban boxing type character but when these blokes are in there 40's hobbling around as unknowns and have abused there bodies for our entertainment is it fair?,
would a 5 meter rule change help or would it slow the game down too much i don't know .It might be just me getting a guilt trip paying just £179 a year for a season pass to see some players earn a living, but with perhaps long term consiquensies (sorry spelling) and coupled with the tragedies at wakefield .Rant over and a big thankyou to all RL players the world over for the entertainment and bravery week in week out

It is hard on their bodies but they do it for a living (maybe not enough) but if the players don't want to play then they don't have to.

fair point but could the game be less stressfull on their bodies without a compromise on entertainment standards?

There was something about this the week before the cup fixtures in one of the red tops.

I scoffed it off with a chuckle then, and I do now.

its part of the game and the players know this before they embark on a career in the game - if they dont like it they can give the game up - no one makes them do it

tag rugby, you could have girlies playing as well then

Just become a dad and maybe getting soft

I see mr wilkin publicly stated more or less the same thing are you still chuckling

He knew the risks of the job when he took it up.

Like a fireman knows he may die in a fire when he takes the job.

Well there are plenty of risks but obviously the players love the game and the physicality or they would have quit a long time ago.

They get paid to do a job, and paid alot better than our Firemen/police not even mention our lads and lasses in the armed forces. I never want a player to get hurt, but its part of the job.

But my point being can you make the game less stressfull on the body but just as fast and entertaining by a simple rule change,its always been a physical game however i remember games in the 80's 90's being just as good with less injuries

A five metre rule would make the game ridiculous and extremely boring. Teams get away with offside with the ten metre rule now - we'd probably end up having defending players in the attacking line almost as soon as they'd played the ball

The other thing that has to be said is what has happened with Adam Watene and Leon Walker is tragic, very tragic, what happened with Joe Westerman was scary, BUT, these are very rare occurrences, just they've all happened in a short period of time.

We're lucky there aren't more serious injuries, but the same goes for rugby union, gridiron, any physical sport such as ours. How can you take out the intensity when you are dealing with professional sportsmen who have all the advantages of modern training techniques, diet and recovery to keep them playing week in, week out at the highest possible performance levels?

The two deaths are tragic, but werent caused by impacts in rugby. Injuries insport will always happen and a 5 mtr rule instead of ten would ruin the game IMO, but we could trial it for one round.