Breaking the mould? Whiteness, masculinity, Welshness, working-classness and rugby league in Wales

Traditionally, rugby in Wales has meant rugby union, the once-amateur, fifteen-a-side code that has a long history of working-class, male involvement in the Valleys of South Wales (Williams, G., 1985). In recent years, however, rugby union has been joined in South Wales by the non-traditionally Welsh sport of rugby league. Once upon a time, rugby league was the sport that “bought” Welsh rugby players who went north (Collins, 2006). Rugby league has now expanded into Wales, developing its version of the rugby code. After a series of (historical) false starts, Welsh rugby league emerged in the 1990s as a sustainable participation sport. Two professional rugby league clubs have been established in Wales (Crusaders in Wrexham and the South Wales Scorpions), and a number of amateur rugby league clubs are now playing in the summer-based Rugby League Conference. But why would anyone in Wales watch, and actively support, rugby league? What does it say about contemporary leisure choices, social identity and nationalism? In this paper, we explore the ways in which rugby league has penetrated the rugby union heartlands of Wales, and how the individuals who support Welsh rugby league (the players, the fans, the administrators) see their own Welshness in relation to their support of the ‘other’ rugby. We have interviewed Welsh rugby league enthusiasts at two periods in Welsh rugby league’s recent history: the high point of the Crusaders move to North Wales in the Super League, and the low point of the club’s resignation from the elite league and its resurrection in the lowest division of professional rugby league. For many rugby league fans the desire on the part of Welsh people to develop rugby league in Wales – supported by the Rugby Football League, the national governing body of rugby league in England, which works closely with the Wales Rugby League – is dismissed as an expensive nonsense by northern English fans on on-line forums and in the letters pages of rugby league newspapers. Yet those letters pages also show evidence of Welsh pride in their rugby league clubs, and Welsh pride in being part of rugby league’s ‘imaginary community’ (Spracklen, Timmins and Long, 2010): I read with incredulity the letter by Phil Taylor in last week’s League Express. Mister Taylor stated that ‘the most important criterion for a Super league licence should be the proximity of the M62’ [to the club]… Perhaps Mister Taylor should venture a little further from his ‘shoe box in the middle of the M62’. I live in rural Carmarthenshire… A few friends and I decided to follow the Celtic Crusaders, which involved a 100 mile round trip for home matches down another motorway, the M4.” (Nic Day, letter to League Express, 2765, 27 June 2011, p. 35) The following section is a literature review on Welshness, community, masculinity and rugby union. After that, we briefly discuss our methods and then introduce some important history and policy context around rugby league in the north of England and Wales. The rest of the chapter is built around the issues raised by our respondents and our critical analysis and discussion. We will show that the adoption of rugby league is associated with two separate trends: an awareness of and identification with its northern, working-class roots, its anti-London rhetoric and its ideology of toughness and resistance; and a rationalisation that league is just another form of rugby, in which traditional Welsh maleness can be protected. Both of these trends allow the whiteness of Welsh rugby union and of Welshness itself (like the whiteness of northern English rugby league and traditional northern identity – see Spracklen, Long and Timmins, 2010) to go un-noticed and unchallenged

Negotiations of minority ethnic rugby league players in the Cathar country of France

This article is based on new empirical, qualitative research with minority ethnic rugby league players in the southwest of France. Drawing on similar research on rugby league in the north and the south of England, the article examines how rugby league, traditionally viewed as a white, working-class male game (Collins, 2006; Denham, 2004; Spracklen, 1995, 2001) has had to re-imagine its symbolic boundaries as they are constituted globally and locally to accommodate the needs of players from minority ethnic backgrounds. In particular, the article examines the sense in which experiences of minority ethnic rugby league players in France compare with those of their counterparts in England (Spracklen, 2001, 2007), how rugby league is used in France to construct identity, and in what sense the norms associated with the imaginary community of rugby league are replicated or challenged by the involvement of minority ethnic rugby league players in France. Questions about what it means to be (provincial, national) French (Kumar, 2006) are posed, questions that relate to the role of sport in the construction of Frenchness, and in particular the role of rugby league (and union). © Copyright ISSA and SAGE Publications

Defamiliarizing heavy-contact sports: A critical examination of rugby, discipline, and pleasure

Pleasure can be regarded as a productive force in the constitution of the social sig-nificance of sport and desiring sport subjects. The organization and use of sport plea-sure has been a relatively marginalized topic of examination. To promote and examine sport pleasure, I conducted semistructured interviews with seven passionate rugby players. Transcripts were analyzed via Foucauldian theorizing and revealed the inter-twined workings of technologies of dominance and self in the constitution of rugby pleasures. As a strategy to defamiliarize and disrupt habitual and uncritical accep-tance of rugby aggression, I argued that rugby pleasures were akin to sadomasochism. Rugby can be understood as a taboo-breaking game associated with transparent rela-tions of power connected with the pleasure induced from physical domination and the fear of pain

RUGBY IN IRELAND: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATION. RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 97 November 2019

This report, commissioned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), provides evidence relating to the level of participation in rugby in Ireland and the factors that underpin it. It exploits five data sources – four from the Republic of Ireland and one from Northern Ireland. The analysis investigates patterns of participation in rugby among adults and children, over time and by social group. It explores people’s motivations for active participation and the extent of physical activity involved. In addition to active participation, i.e. physically playing rugby, patterns of social participation in the form of volunteering, club membership and attendance at events are analysed

Perceptions and determinants of healthy eating in high performing male adolescent rugby players : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Background: Rugby is a competitive sport in New Zealand, with the leading team, the All Blacks, ranked first in the world. Since nutrition plays an important role in sports performance, understanding how to facilitate young high-performing rugby players to eat healthy will help to optimise their performance. Research is lacking regarding perceptions and determinants of healthy eating for young rugby players, both in New Zealand and internationally. This study aimed to explore perceptions and determinants of healthy eating for high performing male adolescent rugby players living in New Zealand. Methods: Perceptions and determinants were explored using semi-structural individual interviews. Participants were 20 male high-performing rugby players aged 16 to 18 years. Interviews were recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis of themes. Results: Perceptions of healthy eating included balance and variety, portions according to energy needs and specific foods. Numerous determinants of healthy eating were described including factors related to the general lifestyle of an adolescent, including peers, family and food availability, cost, convenience and taste of food. Sports-specific determinants relating to participants’ athletic lifestyles were sports performance, motivation to perform, team culture and the timing, amount and types of food on the gastrointestinal tract. Some determinants were both general and sports-specific including the media, physical appearance and feeling good. Conclusion: High-performing male adolescent rugby players living in New Zealand have a good general understanding of the meaning of a healthy diet. A range of determinants influence the diet of these young rugby players, including general and sports-specific determinants from the macro-level, social and physical environment, as well as individual factors. Further research is required to explore the determinants of healthy eating in high-performing male adolescent rugby players both in New Zealand and internationally

A Ride With Booker T. Washington

https://dh.howard.edu/booker_manu/1000/thumbnail.jp

Association between MAPT polymorphism but not APOE promoter and elite rugby athlete status

INTRODUCTION: Incidence and outcomes of concussions have been hypothesised to be genetically influenced. The APOE Promoter G219T (rs405509) polymorphism has been associated with differential promoter activity and unfavourable outcomes after traumatic brain injury. The TT genotype is associated with a 3-fold greater risk of multiple concussions. The TT genotype of MAPT (rs10445337) has also been associated with poorer outcomes after concussion. Rugby has one of the highest incidences of concussion in sport, so it was hypothesised that APOE Promoter TT and MAPT TT genotypes would be less prevalent in elite rugby athletes because those genotypes, previously associated with increased risk, would be less compatible with achieving elite athlete status. METHODS: Participants were from the RugbyGene project, comprising elite Caucasian male rugby athletes (n = 528; mean (standard deviation) height 1.85 (0.07) m, mass 101 (14) kg, age 29 (7) yr), including 420 rugby union (RU) athletes that for some analyses were divided into forwards and backs and 108 rugby league (RL) athletes. Non-athletes were 592 Caucasian men and women (57% male, height 1.72 (0.10) m, mass 74 (14) kg, age 31 (7) yr). PCR of genomic DNA was used to determine genotypes using TaqMan probes, then groups were compared using χ2 and odds ratio (OR) statistics. RESULTS: All genotype data were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. For MAPT (rs10445337), the risk genotype (TT) was underrepresented in rugby athletes (60%) compared to non-athletes (66%), CT more common in rugby athletes (34%) than non-athletes (29%) and little difference in CC genotype frequencies (χ2 = 7.092, P = 0.029; TT genotype frequency OR = 0.80, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 0.62-1.02). There were no differences in MAPT (rs10445337) genotype frequencies between RU forwards and backs. For APOE Promoter G219T (rs405509), there were no differences in genotype frequencies between all athletes (RU and RL) and non-athletes (27% TT genotype in players and non-athletes), nor between RU forwards and backs. CONCLUSION: The MAPT (rs10445337) TT genotype is 6% less common in elite rugby athletes than non-athletes. Therefore, carrying at least one rs10445337 C allele appears to increase the probability of sustained career success in the high-risk concussion environment of elite rugby, perhaps via a greater ability to recover from concussions.Peer reviewe

The epidemiology of injuries in Australian professional Rugby Union 2014 Super Rugby competition

BACKGROUND: Rugby union is a collision-based ball sport played at the professional level internationally. Rugby union has one of the highest reported incidences of injury of all team sports. PURPOSE: To identify the characteristics, incidence, and severity of injuries occurring in Australian professional Super Rugby Union. DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study. METHODS: The present study was a prospective epidemiology study on a cohort of 180 professional players from 5 Australian Super Rugby teams during the 2014 Super Rugby Union Tournament. Team medical staff collected and submitted daily training and match-play injury data through a secure, web-based electronic platform. The injury data included the main anatomic location of the injury, specific anatomic structure of the injury, injury diagnosis, training or match injury occurrence, main player position, mechanism of injury, and the severity of the injury quantified based on the number of days lost from training and/or competition due to injury. RESULTS: The total combined incidence rate for injury during training and match-play across all Australian Super Rugby Union teams was 6.96 per 1000 hours, with a mean injury severity of 37.45 days lost from training and competition. The match-play injury incidence rate was 66.07 per 1000 hours, with a mean severity of 39.80 days lost from training and competition. No significant differences were observed between forward- and back-playing positions for match or training injury incidence rate or severity. CONCLUSION: The incidence of injury for the present study was lower during match-play than has previously been reported in professional rugby union; however, the overall time loss was higher compared with previous studies in professional rugby union. The high overall time loss was due fundamentally to a high incidence of injuries with greater than 28 days’ severity

Evidence in support of the call to ban the tackle and harmful contact in school rugby: a response to World Rugby

In a paper published in BJSM (June 2016), World Rugby employees Ross Tucker and Martin Raftery and a third coauthor Evert Verhagen took issue with the recent call to ban tackling in school rugby in the UK and Ireland. That call (to ban tackling) was supported by a systematic review published in BJSM. Tucker et al claim that: (1) the mechanisms and risk factors for injury along with the incidence and severity of injury in youth rugby union have not been thoroughly identified or understood; (2) rugby players are at no greater risk of injury than other sports people, (3) this is particularly the case for children under 15 years and (4) removing the opportunity to learn the tackle from school pupils might increase rates of injuries. They conclude that a ban ‘may be unnecessary and may also lead to unintended consequences such as an increase in the risk of injury later in participation.’ Here we aim to rebut the case by Tucker et al. We share new research that extends the findings of our original systematic review and meta-analysis. A cautionary approach requires the removal of the tackle from school rugby as the quickest and most effective method of reducing high injury rates in youth rugby, a public health priority

The Motivational Factors that Influence Rugby Fandom in The United States

The purpose of this research was to understand the different factors that affect varying levels of rugby fandom. Rugby is currently very popular worldwide but faces extreme competition in the United States, especially from football. This research is important because it will help marketers and sport managers better understand fan motivation in rugby. This will allow them to better market and grow the sport in the United States to compete with American sports. A sample of 111 participants from a small private college in New York was surveyed for this study. The survey contained primarily quantitative questions, with one open ended quantitative question to end the survey. Participants were asked about the factors that motivate them to follow sport in general and what factors might lead them to follow rugby if they don’t already. Socialization and excitement of the game were found to be the highest rated motivational factors. It was also found that there was a significant difference in how men rated violence and sport higher than women, implying that rugby may struggle generating a female fanbase because of its physical and violent nature. In the analysis of the qualitative data one of the most common themes was that American sports fans compare rugby to football which reinforces the heavy competition from football in the United States. Many fans also commented on the physicality of the game, for some it was a turnoff to the sport and to others it made the sport more exciting. Other fans felt that, while expressing some interest in the sport, it was confusing and difficult to follow as well as hard to gain access to. These results show that the biggest challenge to rugby will likely be competition from other sports. As of right now there is no significant outlet for rugby in the US which makes it hard to find for potential fans. American audiences will need greater exposure to the sport in order to develop a better understanding of the game and generate fandom