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When Craig Mackenzie started playing rugby nearly two decades ago, he joined his father’s club team because there were few other options. Today, rugby is one of the country’s fastest growing team sports. Programs cater to kids as young as six, and this year, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association recognized high school rugby as a varsity sport.
“I’m the coach for two other varsity sports,” said MacKenzie, who coaches rugby at Brookline High School. “The kids that are playing rugby are putting just as much into it, so it’s good that it’s finally being recognized.”
High school rugby players are getting their due at a time of heightened concern over sports-related concussions. There’s evidence that participation in tackle football, the sport most often linked to head trauma, is declining. Data from the National Federation of State High School Associations shows 24,000 fewer high school kids nationwide played football in 2015 compared to five years prior. Sports and Fitness Industry Association numbers indicate tackle football participation among all age groups dropped nine percent during those same years, while participation in rugby rose 47 percent.
In football you have pads on so you just feel invincible. You don't really think about how you're trying to tackle because you have all that protection.
Rugby’s growth may seem counter-intuitive. Like football, it’s a contact sport built around tackling the opponent. There’s a key difference that would seem to make rugby more dangerous than football: players wear no helmets or pads.
“The main focus of rugby is safety,” said Peter Hopkins, a Brookline High senior who plays both sports. "In football you have pads on, so you just feel invincible. You don't really think about how you're trying to tackle because you have all that protection."
Lose the helmets and pads and rugby enthusiasts say players are less likely to turn their bodies into human torpedoes, and more likely to master a rugby fundamental: a tackle that’s something like a bear hug.
During an afternoon practice MacKenzie demonstrated a tackle with one of his players.
“My body just hugged alongside and let his own momentum, his own weight, fall forward,” said MacKenzie. “That’s technically a tackle, but I haven’t really put a collision in there.”
In the sports medicine division at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. John Corrado says he sees evidence that rugby hits are generally less severe than what he sees among football players.
“We see plenty of concussions in rugby, but the head injuries in rugby tend to be more of a glancing blow, scalp lacerations and ear injuries rather than head-to-head injuries. I think it really comes back to speed of impact," said Corrado.
Chris Nowinski, a former college football player and founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, agrees rugby has a different approach to tackling than football.
“But I don’t think we have the evidence to say it’s safer or more dangerous than the tackling we see in American football,” said Nowinski. "We've only started studying rugby the same way we study American football. Until we have data, it may be subjective as to which type of tackling is causing the brain more trauma."
Nowinksi points out that Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease found in the brains of hundreds of former football players, has also been discovered in rugby players.
We've only started studying rugby the same way we study American football. Until we have data it may be subjective as to which type of tackling is causing the brain more trauma.
“There’s no question that any sport in which you’re tackling people to the ground is going to carry a risk of concussion, and going to carry a risk of CTE," said Nowinski.
Nowinski says his group is not against high school students playing contact sports, if they’re played safely.
“The pendulum has swung so far that any danger is being taken off the field immediately now,” said MacKenzie, who also coaches football. “Right now in both sports, if there’s any sort of big collision, that player’s being removed from the sport."
Along with the risks, rugby, like any team sport, offers the benefit of keeping kids healthy and learning new skills. High school athletic directors pushed for rugby to become a varsity sport because there’s a role for anyone who wants to play, regardless of size, speed or gender.
“I’ve never played a ball sport where you catch or kick balls or anything,” explained Isabelle Cotney, a Brookline High junior.
After she played her first few rugby games this spring, she asked coach MacKenzie to let her play a position that allows her to do more of what she loves about the game: tackle the opponent.
“I can’t describe the feeling when I’m on the field,” said Cotney. “You can’t get that any other way.”
