Covid-19 nearly killed rugby! Now we need to change the way we coach.

I don't think anyone could possibly know what Covid-19 was going to do to rugby in this country at all levels of the game. With Worcester Warriors and Wasps going out of business, for varying reasons and many clubs now scaling back wage deals in such a way, that we are seeing some player exodus' from clubs such as Exeter Chiefs and Bristol Bears to use just 2 examples, we continue to see its ripples effecting the sport.

Of course the salary situation was exacerbated by the surge of available players that all had their contracts terminated after their clubs went into administration. This meant that supply outstripped demand and clubs were able to fill available slots in rosters with grateful players just happy to be earning.

But this article isn't aimed at the top end of the game. For one, I am not qualified to discuss the solutions as I have no involvement at the higher echelons, I'd just be surmising. Secondly the big boys will often find ways through that smaller community clubs can't.

This article is based around my experience of grassroots clubs, clubs like my own at Eastleigh and the coaches I am in touch with at other clubs from Level 4 and lower.

So, what I've found is that Covid has blindsided the sport in many ways. Being a rugby player has always been a big commitment. As a coach I ask my players to train Tuesday and Thursday evenings, do recovery and gym sessions, attend games on Saturday and to try to watch the recording of the game back, in order that the analysis makes sense. This commitment, especially on a long away travel, can take anything up to 19 hours a week.

What we have found since the pandemic is that players' approach to this commitment has changed (I must stress that this is a broad brush statement and of course there are still those players who want to operate in that environment, often contracted but many that aren't). My point is about the many, not the few. It must also be said that I am talking about the senior men's game, again I don't want to talk about something I have no real visibility on.

Lockdown, the subsequent limitations placed on our lives and especially contact sports was brutal for many grassroot rugby clubs. Memberships, were frozen, or lost altogether. Sponsors belts, quite rightly, were tightened in order to survive and bar takings and hospitality fell through the floor. of course there were government grants to help everyone keep the doors open but it is fair to say, that in many cases, without them some clubs may have never re-appeared.

What it also meant is that players were at home more. A lot more. Families got used to having them around and the players got used to not being sore, not picking up injuries and often found new hobbies to occupy their time; golf for instance can be played once a week and takes no more than 5 hours and is also unlikely to warrant you not turning up for work on Monday.

After the re launch, we played under the amended rules, an admirable attempt by Twickenham to get us back playing again but not Rugby as we knew it and a lot of people didn't want to play that either. We then had the season that became truncated by postponements and isolation and we never truly got started until the beginning of the 21/22 season.

The pointy I'm making is that the everyday rugby player was at first, commanded not to play by government, then asked to play a game they didn't recognise, then told to stay home if infected and finally we all now want you back doing your 19 hours or more a week. And in truth, its not happened.

I have seen one of my worse injury hit seasons in 13 years of coaching. numerous ACL/MCL injuries, approaching 20 concussions and a myriad of other things that seem almost unaccountable for. But when you look below the surface, you realise we should have seen this coming. Players are training less in the main, some basic spot analysis of training pre and post Covid confirms that. But in addition to that peoples personal training away from the game has also dropped.

This is because 'something has to give' if you want to be a player in the modern game and balance home and work life, I'm told many a rugby player. And I do try to understand that. I have had 2 players tell me they aren't available this season because, on 2 separate occasions, they are going to theatre matinee productions with their respective partners. And not that there is anything wrong with that, my point is merely, that I never was offered those kind of explanations before, certainly not from 2 dye in the wool clubmen.

Injuries are often preventable, a statement that would seem obvious but they are. Strengthening and activating work can add a huge level of protection to joints and the head especially. With concussion rates a hot topic at the moment, is it any wonder that we are seeing more of them, when training numbers are down and peoples personal gym routines have depleted, of course not, we aren't protecting ourselves in the same way was matter of fact previously.

It also must be said, that as coaches, we have been advised by World Rugby to limit the amount of full contact in training to 15 minutes a week. A sentiment I appreciate, having come from an era where 'we trained as we played' and often Tuesday nights were far more brutal than anything that happened on a Saturday. But how can we condition players to avoid these obvious happenings when 15 minutes is the recommended level.

Its a conundrum that has seen participation numbers tumble. In 2016 there were 259,600 people participating in rugby in England, in 2021 that number was 133,600. There are of course other mitigating factors, such as the on going court case by several high profile players about the long term effects of rugby that have seen parents not want their children to play. But it is an alarming fall by any measure. Teams that were running four sides, like my old club Bournemouth now struggle even to run 3.

What this does, of course, is reverberate at a lot of levels. Firstly the clubs lose the membership fees (The average grassroots club membership fee for seniors and juniors is ￡125, so losing 126,000 lots of that means that ￡15,750,000 is no longer coming in to the game), there is the reduction in additional spend in terms of food, drinks and clothing. There is also less people talking about our sport positively than before.

Now we find the game is about to under go the biggest evolution since the professional era began, with the reduction in tackle height, that many clubs believe will further reduce player participation. There has been a huge amount of negative reaction, some of it justified but a lot of it hysterical, some of it inflammatory and aggressive and some of it simply being judgemental before the effect. I accept that some players, of more senior years, enjoy playing still because they can tackle above the waist and they don't want to have to re-teach themselves to get low and put their 'head in the spokes' so to speak, but some of the outcry was thunderous in its condemnation.

Of course the initial communication from the RFU was dreadful and I still don't know, why if World Rugby were going to introduce a trial, then they didn't wait to tie it together but ultimately it is coming and we have to deal with it.

Which brings me finally to the changes we will need to adopt in coaching the 'new' game. Tackling is a skill that is only improved through repetition and changing ingrained habits in life, is the same. Therefore we will need a significant change in focus around the '15 minute full contact a week' rule. We will need to think laterally, try to limit 'bone on bone'. We will tackle with crash mats and tackle suits etc, we can use gym balls carried by the attacker in order to create habitual lowering of the tackle at impact but this will need to be a focus of all our pre-season schedules in a way we haven't focused on it before.

We are also going to have to think very hard about the role of the 2nd defender arriving, during and post tackle, how do we slow the ball down in order that the offload cant be executed. In my opinion it should be with a fair contest for the ball through counter rucking, rather than a 'jackler' as increasingly referees look to penalise the defender, showing no clear release, going beyond the ball and lifting the player not the ball.

We are going to have to, I believe, re-visit in-training conditioning. It is no longer as easy as the coach wanting to teach rugby and the players getting fit in their own time. We have a duty of care to our players to improve their chance of avoiding injury. We have a duty of care to the game to not allow these players to slip away. This can only be done by additional 'work-on' sessions and increased S and C blocks in our session planning.

Whatever happens it is imperative, we take heed of the markers, the downward trajectory of player participation and find new and fresh ways of promoting our sport.

Covid tried its hardest to finish us off, we all now need to rise from its ashes and show why we are custodians of the greatest team sport on earth.