With the return of schools in England after the conclusion of the third national lockdown schools are once again faced with a dilemma surrounding sport and other co-curricular activities. The previous times such a return has occurred sports considered by the wider public to be more aggressive and involve more contact such as rugby have fallen victim to postponements and cancellations whilst sports such as football, not too dissimilar in nature of contact have been permitted to go on unhindered. This then poses the questions as to where are these decisions coming from and why are they being made in such radical fashion for some sports whilst others go untouched.
On face value it appears to be fairly obvious that rugby, involving groups of people in close proximity to each other in scrums or rucks as well as upward of thirty people handling the ball in the duration of a match, would be considered conducive to the spread of the Coronavirus and therefore it seems reasonable that contact rugby should be avoided indefinitely. Furthermore, the decision to delay the return of rugby in its true form was taken by the Rugby Football Union, the governing body in England, themselves. Therefore it was widely accepted that touch rugby would take its place until it was deemed safe for the sport to return in all its glory.
However, many have raised the argument that whilst understanding the potential dangers of playing rugby in the current climate surely football and even touch rugby, which are yet to have been impeded, are not too varied in the amount of contact between players that occur. Many football games involve hundreds of tackles or confrontations involving closeness of numerous players and whilst this is not organized as in the case of scrums in rugby it still occurs nonetheless. This contuinuation of a contact sport even in the current climate appears negligent on behalf of the government bodies presiding over sports such as football
In conclusion I believe the fact that three nationwide lockdowns have been imposed clearly illustrates that we need to take extra care to break the looming cycle. Thus, it should be considered how effective the COVID precautions currently in place at schools, such as wearing a mask all day or the cancellation of rugby, truly are, when inter school contact events such as football fixtures still occur and whether contact or even team sports should still hold a place in the current lifestyle of a student.
