Last Word: Making sports safer

Rule-makers have a responsibility to make sports, especially those with a potential for life-crippling harm, as safe as possible without sucking out the frisson that makes sport what it is. This is a delicate balance to maintain.

Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie (on ground) reacts after being fouled by England’s Lauren James during the Women’s World Cup. Interestingly, after the match, Alozie sportingly responded to James with: “no hard feelings. It’s just a game.”

At the women’s World Cup football, England’s Lauren James stepped on to the backside of a prone Nigerian player, Michelle Alozie. James copped a red card and a two-match ban. England’s rugby captain Owen Farrell was initially shown a red card for a reckless head-high charge on Wales’ Taine Basham, a punishment that was later rescinded on appeal. All sports speak of reducing injuries, and some work towards it.

Rugby’s new ‘bunker review’ system has a television match official deciding whether a yellow card — which is what Farrell was given on field — deserves to be upped to a red. It was changed to red in this case, but the decision was overruled by a committee. The high tackle is banned in an effort to make the sport safer.

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