Is playing rugby worth it now?

Beau wrote: »

With covid is it worth the risk playing rugby anymore?

I had a bit of a chesty thing last week and the fear I had before I got tested was unreal! I wasn't worried about having it myself but if I had passed it on to my parents or anyone else. The guilt I had too if it was all from the persuit of my hobby. I was negative by the way.

I'm just thinking, when rugby comes back fully with contact and games and all, is it worth the risk?

Firstly, glad to hear you are ok. Football and GAA will be back before Rugby so if there are no outbreaks from playing them would that give you any more confidence?

Obviously appreciate Rugby has more contact etc. but at least we can see how the Footy and GAA get on first.

D14Rugby wrote: »

Covid can't spread through sweat so in my mind full contact Rugby's no more of a risk than going to the pub, neither of which I'll be doing for a while yet and when I go back to both I'll only do so when proper procedures are in place

Way less risk than pub as that is indoors. For some people, there is also a risk of not doing rugby. It's an incentive to stay fit which will help you no matter what bugs you catch and it's also good for your mental health as the sport builds your character.

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Except for the pile of lads puffing and panting and accidentally spitting, etc in a ruck or scrum!
I don't see how rugby couldn't but be lethal. I also think in hurling or football you are still a close contact with a serious number of people throughout an hour.
More and more experts seem to be calling into question whether we should be playing any contact sports. Hard to know.

Like who? And experts at what?

Tim Robbins wrote: »

Way less risk than pub as that is indoors. For some people, there is also a risk of not doing rugby. It's an incentive to stay fit which will help you no matter what bugs you catch and it's also good for your mental health as the sport builds your character.

If the virus can spread in aerosol droplets like they claim then any physical group sport will be risky even outside

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53329946

You can stay fit without the need for team sports.

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Definitely heard Gerard Killeen I think it was saying that playing contact sport is not a good idea, and think I heard one of the US experts saying the same, Dr Anthony Fauci or somebody about the NFL.

What would they know, I suppose!

Gerard Killeen never called into question playing contact sports. He called into question large gatherings of people especially where singing and shouting at players / refs / teams is happening. He says that pints cant be served, mask mandatory, distancing etc etc. But never that contact sports shouldnt be played.

https://www.the42.ie/how-long-before-crowds-allowed-back-to-games-5121369-Jun2020/

Personally I just follow the guidelines. If rugby is allowed then I'd play it...well I would if I hadn't retired...each to their own and I'm not ignorant of the risks, but I don't want to live in a shell for the rest of my days either.

Covid isn't going anywhere anytime soon! Get used to it!

Other thing I'd say is a people who are asymptomatic can spread the virus but the probability of them spreading it is lower.

Lads, who feel 80% ok 20% sick still go out for beers, hop on public transport and slog it thru work with the odd lemsip but are less likely to play a sport especially with the protocols that are there.

Lastly, in terms of overall probability...

If there are say an average of 10 new infections a day. The chances of you getting it are still very low. It's more about following protocols to make sure something ridiculous isn't happening. If we are getting 400 cases a day well then it will stopping sports and don't think we'll have a say.

Anyway, their haven't been directives but I'd be thinking if ref's see anyone cough the player will be advised to go off.

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Thanks. That’s a second article where he didn’t say what you said he did.

And UCC infectious disease ecologist professor Gerard Killeen warned last night that it was ‘inevitable’ the GAA would be faced with a COVID-19 crisis.

‘We have to start looking at things and ask how do we eliminate risk and there is only one way to do that,’ Professor Killeen told the Irish Daily Mail.

‘If you add up football and hurling matches, house parties and pubs; you add all that stuff up together, a lot of those low risks add up to a lot of risk. There is no need to single out the GAA, it is just when you add them all up together it is asking for trouble.

‘The question has to be asked is if this is worth the risk? And are people really enjoying their bit of GAA as much as they thought they would?

‘Someone picking up COVID-19 playing sport will not be a surprise. As soon as people went back training, the alarm bells were going inside my head. I think we need to take stock,’ he added.

However, the GAA’s medical advice is that risk of transmission among players is low — anyone deemed to have come in contact with an infected individual on the pitch is deemed a casual rather than close contact — while scientific findings suggest that it is 19 times less likely to be transmitted outdoors.

But professor Killeen (below) argued last night those findings fall well short of protection against the virus.

‘One nineteenth of a big number is still a very big number. If you have got thousands of GAA players out shoulder to shoulder that is a big number.

‘It never made sense. I think people have enough common sense to put two and two together,’ added Professor Killeen.

My reading of that is that he is questioning the GAA's advice regarding contact sports. I would assume the same applies to rugby but sure look, he calls for common sense but I'm sure you know better than him!

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Your reading of that seems to have missed the line - “there is no need to single out the GAA”

And your original point was about rugby, something that’s not mentioned in this article.

Well if the best you can come up with as a counter argument to my original point (which was that an infectious disease expert questions whether we should be playing any sport) is that he doesn't mention rugby but mentions GAA, I wish you a good day.

As someone who has been back hurling for the last 3 weeks- yes.
I know all of the arguments against so I'll acknowledge them without repeating them, but the feeling of being out on the pitch again was better than I was even expecting.

I'd always be very reluctant to go so far as to say something affected my mental health, but I'll certainly say I'd turned a bit negative, mopey and irritable by June that went straight out the window.

Havent played rugby in a good few years but I dont see why it would be any different

Unrelated: Killeen, while monumentally better qualified than me, seems to be on the absolute negative end of the spectrum in all of what he has said in public. Plenty of equally qualified people are slightly, or a lot more positive than him. So if we tend towards the middle it reasonable to expect a better scenario than he paints

Beau wrote: »

This is where I'm at too. I had been considering retiring last year but now I'm delighted to be back outside with a group activity again. Definitely appreciate the positives of team sport to mental and physical health more than before.

I do think the planned season will probably not go ahead as planned so I'll enjoy training while it lasts.

Might be just me, but I didn't find my mental health suffered at all during the lockdown, I went running with a couple of friends now and then and found it just as good as a team/contact sport?

Tommybojangles wrote: »

As someone who has been back hurling for the last 3 weeks- yes.
I know all of the arguments against so I'll acknowledge them without repeating them, but the feeling of being out on the pitch again was better than I was even expecting.

I'd always be very reluctant to go so far as to say something affected my mental health, but I'll certainly say I'd turned a bit negative, mopey and irritable by June that went straight out the window.

Havent played rugby in a good few years but I dont see why it would be any different

Unrelated: Killeen, while monumentally better qualified than me, seems to be on the absolute negative end of the spectrum in all of what he has said in public. Plenty of equally qualified people are slightly, or a lot more positive than him. So if we tend towards the middle it reasonable to expect a better scenario than he paints

Good post. I’m quite taken aback by the fear shown by some here. I won’t cast aspersions on anyone for that because, full disclosure, I’m banned from the Covid forum (partially by request) due to the frustration and outright anger I’ve expressed at what I had termed “Covid bedwetters”. For me, the joy of team sport outstrips any perceived risk of playing it and I think if you can, you should because many can not for far more serious reasons. Super Rugby is back and they look to be loving it, it looks every bit worth it to those players. Gerry Killeen is a scaremonger for whom the (perceived) threats of Covid exist in a vacuum in which they cannot be offset by the joys of normal life like, yes, playing rugby. I mean was anyone here not truly disturbed by Dr Barry O’Driscoll’s dystopian way forward for rugby which seemed to advocate the elimination of contact and the disinfecting of the ball at regular intervals? This is not rugby and it most certainly is not life. I’ve been “trying” to live a normal life for the last three, four weeks or so. I’ve gone on foreign holiday, hugged those I love (90 year old granny included - she insisted), shook hands with old friends, gone to the gym, drank in bars and ate in restaurants. When the rugby team I am involved with returns to play, it will be added to that list. For your sanity, do the same.

Jayesdiem wrote: »

When the rugby team I am involved with returns to play, it will be added to that list. For your sanity, do the same.

Tell the covid officer in your club your views before you return for their sanity.