A Duty Of Care

Duty of care: A moral or legal obligation to ensure the safety or well-being of others.

RL has to provide that. It cannot stop over aggressive behaviour taking place but it can and must act decisively against it. The brain for example is a very important, but also fragile, part of our body. It was never designed to take the impacts contact sport delivers.

I was watching the highlights of a RL game in the NRL today and several incidents stood out. One defensive player was flattened when he got his head in a poor position, but the ball carrier didn't help matters by driving his hip against the defender's head. Player taken off and took no further part. It happens but brain injury material.

A little later a player is hit hard from behind after passing the ball. No injury but that sort of hit creates a whiplash effect. It's unnecessary as the tackler would have known from the body language of the other player he was too late to stop the pass. The same thing happened again, only this time the intent and impact was much harder and the defender stayed down. A penalty ensued and the incident put on report.

Then a player leads into a tackle with his head rammed into someone's face without arms being used and then two swinging arms followed. They didn't connect as the victim had been poleaxed already. The action wasn't a head clash but using the head as a missile. This led to the aggressive player being sent from the field. It also contributed to his side losing in the dying minutes of the game.

The player concerned is one of the dirtiest players around, trying to play the tough guy. He showed no remorse after the impact and seeing a player lying prone. His coach - who's team is a disgrace - felt no action should have been taken on the field at all. Outrageous.

Sadly the NRL has decided no further action will be taken retrospectively. What kind of message is that sending out? If I want to watch thuggish violence, I'll watch cage boxing or the like. For RL I want to see skill. Sure, it's an impact game and as player in my youth I didn't flinch at tough, fair play. However, not the sort of play when a man thinks he's the 'big man' if he injures others.

These impacts I've highlighted above all affected the brain of the hit player in some way. It's a precious organ and repeated damage to it will have an effect at sometime, probably after retiring. Is the NRL doing enough to protect the innocent from the testosterone fueled he-man who wants to play the tough guy, seeking to intimidate and hurt others?

In the future at some time, lawyers will form some sort of class action suit and use footage of the above game (and many others) to show that dangerous play was going on. Then the leniency shown by the judiciary will also be exposed. Brain damage is permanent as it results in cells being killed. That cannot be fixed by court action but the heafty payout the victims deserve will come back to bite the NRL. They have a duty of care but failing in this regard will be a costly exercise somewhere down the line.

Old Fashioned RL Scrums

There used to be a scrum that were contested in the sense the ball had to be fed down the middle of the tunnel between the the two sets of forwards. The hookers dangled from the front row ready to strike as the ball left the halfback's hands. All sorts of gamesmanship was involved.

It slowed the game down to the point it was a blight on the action packed game that it was supposed to be. The rule makers stepped in and effectively turned the scrum into a means of restarting the game but nothing more. It does take twelve players out of action for a brief time, which on occasions helps the side that wins the ball from the scrum.

Rules of sport are like tax laws. They have to keep changing to clamp down on those who want work outside the spirit of the law. It's to stop people who want on unfair advantage for their own benefit and don't care about the overall good compliance with said laws brings.

UK Elite Teams By Season : 1987-88

For this season the number of sides in the top flight dropped from 16 to 14. The two new teams were Hunslet and Swinton. The four dropped from the previous season were Oldham, Featherstone, Barrow and Wakefield. They didn't mind giving things a shake up back then.

The League. Widnes were the best in the Championship that year with 40 points, followed by St Helens with 36. Wigan also received 36, with Bradford (36) there too, with Leeds (33), Warrington (30), Castleford (26) and Halifax (24) making up the Premiership finalists. Only three teams were neither in that competition nor relegated.

The Challenge Cup. Going to the quarter finalists as per usual, the results were Wigan 10-1 Widnes, Hull FC 27-12 Doncaster, Hull KR 4-26 Halifax, Salford 22-18 St Helens.

The semis had Wigan overpowering Salford 34-4 and Halifax playing twice 0-0 and 4-3 Hull FC. A seven point combined score over two games must be the lowest ever! The final at Wembley had an amazing 94,000 plus in attendance. There Wigan took the silverware with a 32-12 victory over Halifax.

The League Cup. Again at the quarter finals, the results were Warrington 10-14 Oldham, St Helens 20-16 Hull FC, Salford 12-16 Wigan and Springfield Borough 12-22 Leeds. The semi finals had Leeds beating Wigan 19-6 and St Helens too good for Oldham 18-8.

The final at Wigan in very muddy conditions (see video) had 17,000 spectators. Oh, the joys of winter Rugby. There Saints prevailed 15-14 over Leeds in appalling conditions..

Lancashire Cup: The semi final scores were Warrington 44-6 Swinton and Widnes lost to Wigan 12-20. The final at St Helens ground attracted 20,000 attendees. For the match Wigan took the cup 22-16 against Warrington.

Yorkshire Cup: At least this cup gave the Yorkshire sides something to win. In the semi final stage, Bradford were too good for Leeds, winning 16-5. In the other fixture, Featherstone were over run by Castleford 8-36. The final at Leeds had 11,000 fans to watch and 8,000 for the replay. The scores were Bradford 12-12 & 11-2 over Castleford.

The Premiership Finals. The eight best from the league came together for this trophy. The first games were Bradford 32-18 Leeds, , St Helens 40-8 Castleford, Widnes 36-26 Halifax and Widnes 20-10 Warrington.

Then Saints overcame Bradford 24-10 Widnes defeated Warrington 20-10. the final had 35,000 at Old Trafford, Manchester where Widnes won 38-14 against St Helens.

Summary: Applying my points system, we see who did best in the season. Wigan were top with 62 points. That included included the Challenge and Lancashire Cups. Saints took the league Cup and scored 56 points. Widnes were next on 50 points With the league title and Grand final but did little otherwise, which affected the ranking.

	Rk	Team	Lge	Fnl	CC	LC	Y/L	Total
	1	Wigan	16	6	20	8	12	62
	2	St Helens	18	16	6	16		56
	3	Widnes	20	20	6		4	50
	4	Bradford	14	12			12	38
	5	Warrington	11	12		4	8	35
	6	Leeds	12	6		12	4	34
	7	Halifax	8	6	16			30
	8	Castleford	10	6			8	24
	9	Hull FC	6		12	4		22
	10	Salford	5		12	4		21
	11	Hull KR	7		6			13
	12	Oldham				8		8
	13	Swinton	3				4	7
	14	Doncaster			6			6
	15	Featherstone					4	4
	15	Leigh	4					4
	15	Springfield				4		4
	18	Hunslet	2					2
		Total	143	84	84	60	56	427

To see the 1986-87 season, simply click here.
To see the 1988-89 season , just click here.