Ben Darwin injury

[injuryupdate]

Whilst the Rugby World Cup was a major success, the injury to Ben Darwin highlighted a problem that rugby union has with the scrum. The sportsmanship of Kees Meeuws and excellent medical care probably combined to save Ben Darwin from becoming a quadriplegic, but is it good enough to rely on these factors? Should rugby union depower the scrum at all levels of the game, particularly at international level? This would be another move in the direction of rugby league (which the Super 12 has already taken), but would hopefully make the rate of catastrophic spinal injuries lower.

[Unregistered]

No way !
Whilst of course the injuries are regretful - but they can come form anywhere within the game, and to de-power the scrum for the sake of safety would not stop those. Its the job of a ref to stop scrums if he thinks that its becoming dangerous. The scrum is one of the few real defining factors of Union over its simplistic imitators, and to remove it, will be like removing part of the heart of the game. If the Wallabies had srummaged like England this week - do you think anyone on the southern hemi-sphere would be bleating?
Raw power is a major part of the game (particularly to some nations more than others), and it wins the balls for the artist behind to play with. Its the little battles, within the overall war, that makes it such a perfect sport.
Eddie Jones knew at the world cup that Oz were starting to fail in their tight 5 set pieces, and asked for a national scrum academy. Its was refused. We can't ban disciplines just because some teams find them hard, can we ?
League attitudes ? No thanks. You'll have us all playing no contact 'tag' rugby next ?!
Nelly (pom, of course)

[Unregistered]

Did you know that, at one stage (not sure if it is still the case), the majority of the New Zealand Wheel Blacks (NZ wheelchair rugby team - also known as murderball) broke their necks playing rugby union? Generally as a result of scrum collapses (sorry, don't have the exact stat's).

On the one hand, it is good to know that there is life (including a sporting life) after quadriplegia. On the other, what a price!