Rugby: the startling evidence behind Britain's hidden drugs craze

Share
+More
Related Topics
Dangerously Addictive Activities: A New Health Series

No 1: Playing rugby.

Is rugby bad for you?

Well, of course it is, but only in the way that all sport is, ultimately, bad for you. Or is playing rugby bad for you in a special way?

Science is now coming to believe that there is something particularly dangerous about rugby, and that it - more than any other game - is addictive, and can lead to seriously disturbed behaviour.

Consider the evidence.

Rugby players will always tell you that rugby is good for you, that it makes you fit. The evidence, of course, shows the exact opposite - that rugby causes you all sorts of horrific injuries which leave you at the end of your career with old broken bones, cauliflower ears, a damaged brain and so on.

Oh, yes, but that is all part of life, say rugby players. You can break a bone doing anything. When you are not injured, you are as fit as can be.

When you are not injured ...

In fact, rugby players are not uninjured very often. They almost always have niggling strains and hamstring worries. Some players are on the injured list as much as the team list. When they are playing, they feel really well and forget their injuries, but this is because they get a buzz from the game which gives them a lift.

Get a buzz ... Gives them a lift ...

Very reminiscent of the world of drugs, is it not?

And scientists are now coming to believe that rugby is a mildly hallucinatory activity, which gives people a high and a heightened sense of reality.

Or do we mean a distorted sense of reality?

Consider the facts.

For 80 minutes 30 grown men run up and down a muddy field convinced that:

a) an oval ball is a sensible shape;

b) it is good to throw a ball backwards but bad to throw it forwards;

c) it is normal to put your arms round other men and insert your head between their buttocks, then push as hard as possible;

d) it is good fun to risk having your teeth knocked out by clasping running men round the knees ...

These are just a few of the things which a rugby player believes during a game, though he does not believe or do any of them at any other time.

It stands to reason that his grasp of reality is skewed.

The average rugby player will also pretend to understand and obey a series of regulations which make no sense to anyone else. Recently, the RFU has been adding rules about "coming in from the wrong side" and "not releasing the ball" and "going over the top" which are virtually impossible to work out in cold blood, let alone in an active game.

Yet the average player never disputes these rules, so fuddled is he by the effect the game has on him. When he has the ball in his arms, and is tackled, and finds himself lying pinioned under 10 or 12 heavy men, and then hears the referee penalising him for not releasing the ball (which is physically impossible), the sensible reaction would be, if not to punch the ref on the nose, at least dispute the sense of it.

The rugby player takes it like a lamb.

Such suppression is dangerous, and may explain the bouts of violence which erupt during games, and very often after the game. Luckily, rugby players' vision must be affected by the game as well, as they scarcely ever land an effective punch, but it is undeniable that such socially destructive behaviour is caused by the game itself. If this fighting were not caused by rugby, it would also sometimes break out before the game as well. But it never does!

Take into account these other factors which spring from the dependent state to which rugby reduces its addicts:

1) Players generally refuse to wear protective clothing, even though they know they will be injured sooner or later.

2) So anxious are they to get the "buzz" associated with the game that many players go on playing until late in life, well after the age at which it would be sensible to give it up.

3) They persist in saying that the game will make a man out of you, even though the evidence suggests that it will make a cripple out of you.

4) Do you really think a grown man would run at full speed at a pile of other grown men in order to push them off the ball even though he knows he cannot do it, if he were not heavily hallucinating?

Next time you feel tempted to play rugby, think of all these things and then say to yourself: "I don't have to if I don't want to. I don't have to hurt myself for the sake of an oval ball. I don't HAVE to believe that it is bad to throw a ball forward."

It could save your life.

Coming next: Is telephoning addictive? Should it be made illegal?

React Now

Day In a Page

Read Next
A man, pixelated, was reportedly attacked with a machete-style knife  

Woolwich attack: The EDL might have a sinister plan as a soldier is murdered in suspected Islamic terrorist attack

Jamie Lewis
 

Stop laying into GPs. We don't deserve it

Dr Clare Gerada
National archives: Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

Newly unearthed papers reveal a shocking extra dimension to the constitutional crisis over monarch’s abdication
Sent down at the Old Bailey: A tour of the world's most famous court

Sent down at the Old Bailey

A tour of the world's most famous court
Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

The Hangover actor Zach Galifianakis’s date for his movie premieres isn’t arm candy  – it’s his 87-year-old friend who he saved from homelessness
British football scores an own goal

British football scores an own goal

Many managers barely survive a year in post. Martin Baker talks to experts who make a case for clubs using forensic business skills to find the best staff
James Lawton: Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again

James Lawton

Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again
Dylan Hartley: Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong

Dylan Hartley talks tough

Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong
Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

A meeting of global power brokers in a Hertfordshire hotel is exciting conspiracy theorists, but what are they really about?
'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system': Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console

'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system'

Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console
Plenty of Fish dating site founder pulls 'Intimate Encounters' option to ward off sleazy men

Plenty of sleaze

Dating website pulls intimate 'hook-up' section to curb harassment
Inferno author Dan Brown 'honoured' to be invited to join the Freemasons

The Freemasons’ Code

Dan Brown reveals the message that told him door to the lodge is open
Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

Nick Buckles survived the Olympics débâcle and a £5bn bid fiasco but a profit warning finally triggered his downfall
How to say ‘I’m a sellout’: Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar

How to say ‘I’m a sellout’

Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar
Why clubs are keen to take a stand

Why clubs are keen to take a stand

There's a real desire around the grounds for safe standing. But will the authorities listen?
In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

Disillusion with a siege mentality and negative playing style made change inevitable
James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

British driver was fascinating man whose epic duel with Niki Lauda in 1976 was typical of an era of glamour and glory – but also the ever-present threat of death