As an ex player I would not want to see my grandkids playing rugby for health reasons.
The drop off in numbers in the UK from those taking up the sport of rugby is in decline and this has to be worrying for the sport. When I was involved refereeing back in the late 1990's and early 2000's the worry was more about those players not continuing playing after leaving school. The drop off back the was more than 50% which is a high number.
The difference between then and now is the awareness by parents having seen the alarming numbers of players suffering from neurological disorders. Dementia ,Alzheimer's and worse like Motor Neuron Diseases have all been on the increase with MND up 10 x. The stats confirm there is a link on the number of concussions makes a biological difference leaving you susceptible to MND. The statistics cannot hide how dangerous this sport is and as an ex player myself I would probably select another sport if I had to do it all over again. It is understandable why parents are not signing their kids up to rugby clubs.
Some would say the decline is also down to secondary schools reducing the number of sports on offer with rugby taking a back seat. Yes that would take away any opportunities to grow the sport ,but the main catalyst for the taking up of the sport is for health reasons as the sport is not safe.
Back in 2023 the University of Glasgow studied 31 donated brains made up from 23 amateurs and 8 professional players. Those professional players must have died young considering this only started in 1995. From those 31 brains studied 68% had traces of CTE which is an alarmingly high number.
What amazes myself is this is all over the news in the UK with hundreds of players affected yet here in South Africa where the sport is thriving. Half of the registered players which is more than 650K are pre teen which tells you there is no negativity yet. The difference is the media creating the awareness and this has not happened as yet.
There is no court case of players taking their Rugby Union to trial like in the UK and the only story I can find is the mention of one SA rugby player having dementia. I know this s not true and there has to be a similar number of players or more suffering with some type of brain disease. Rugby is a far more physical sport in SA than it is in most other countries due to how they play.
The SA Rugby medical manager has asked players and ex players to not suffer in silence and come forward, but as yet there are none. I do expect at some point this will change because guaranteed there are players suffering from dementia. You cannot have hundreds in the Northern Hemisphere and only one or two in SA because common sense tells you this cannot be true.