Mark Keohane is in full agreement with John Smit’s view on rugby and that trying to sanitize the game will destroy its DNA.
In a Vodacom United Rugby Championship round-table media discussion, Smit said he had understood the risk that comes with playing rugby from the moment he picked up a ball.
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The former Springbok captain welcomed the interventions put in place by World Rugby to mitigate those risks, but warned against over-sanitising the game.
“I have long bemoaned the hysteria around rugby bosses wanting to make the sport something it simply cannot be — safe,” wrote Keohane in a column for TimesLive.
“Players who pursue rugby as a career and get paid millions a year to do so know the risk. If they wanted a career in touch rugby, that is what they should have chosen.
“The professional game is a mess regarding what constitutes unsafe play because it comes down to match officials’ interpretation. They even double as medical experts in their analysis of what constitutes force in a collision. It is madness.
“Rugby is brutal, yet it is this that makes it beautiful for those of us who love the game.
“You cannot sanitise it without destroying its DNA.”
Photo: REUTERS/Anthony Phelps
