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Morning Extra - The Investigation - Are we rugby ready?

Logo for Morning Extra - The Investigation - Are we rugby ready?

Edi Stark asks whether the risks of serious schoolboy rugby injuries are too high? The Scottish Rugby Union aims to have 38,000 young people playing the game by 2012. But not everyone is convinced that this sport is safe enough in its current form to be played by adolescents. Since 2007, four teenagers have been admitted to the national spinal unit in Glasgow after catastrophic injury. The SRU has a consultation running into how the game should develop and change and the Scottish Government has commissioned a pilot study into rugby injuries in young people, having already committed to the encouragement of the game in schools. Is the risk of serious injury currently unacceptably high? Or do we just have to accept that in any contact sport, accidents will happen? Graham Stewart takes your calls, texts and emails.