THIS SEASON IMG rugby will have to settle for a touch rugby league and an end of year contact tournament. However last week, talks were held between IMG rugby, the AU President Scott Pigott, Head of rugby Martin Fowler and Membership Services and Democracy Manager Steve Wilford to discuss the potential restoration of IMG rugby to its former glory.
The air was cleared of popular speculation that the University wanted to rid itself of IMG rugby entirely with reassuring words from Head of Rugby Martin Fowler: “We are not here to stop you playing rugby. We just want you to play rugby safely.”
The primary concern with the continuation of IMG rugby from last season is the high rate and severity of injuries to university students taking part in contact games. The University is essentially culpable for each and every student partaking in university-sanctioned sport. Steve Wilford expressed his anxiety that if IMG rugby were to continue as it is “the University would not be fulfilling its duty of care to its students.”
The regular injuries were soon identified as stemming from the disparity in competency levels within the IMG itself. IMG is host to a number of extremely talented players, but also to a few who have little experience of high level rugby. Throw into the mix what Martin Fowler describes as an “unparalleled intensity” and IMG is an accident waiting to happen.
This is not the only problem that has plagued IMG rugby over the past couple of seasons. There is extremely tough competition for referees in the Cardiff district with BUCS, School competitions and local leagues taking precedence over IMG rugby. To make matters worse the introduction of the ELVs has proven yet another pitfall, with the older referees hanging up their whistles for good.
Yet hope was apparent despite such a bleak outlook. Although the issues of safety and referees first seemed insurmountable, the meeting was rife with suggestions of how to overcome such obstacles. Steve Wilford was optimistic, insisting that despite such concerns “full contact rugby is still the key agenda.”
The buzzwords to emerge from the meeting were “self-sufficiency” and “sustainability”. It was agreed that the most efficient way of revitalising IMG rugby in the long term is for each team to train a first or second year student each year to the WRU Level 2 refereeing requirement. This would immediately remove the problematic shortage of referees.
It was also suggested that each team would train up their own Level 1 coach to iron out the gulf in competency between players. For the more technical aspects of the game such as scrummaging, lineouts and the contact area there is a proposal to bring in community coaches to enrich the playing ability of every participant.
In the short term IMG will have to be content with a weekly touch league and the possibility of a few friendly games, dependent on the availability of referees. IMG rugby is also working towards an end of season knock out competition where they will be given the chance to showcase their newfound competency levels and push for the ultimate goal of a full contact league the following season.
A blueprint is in place for a sustainable, and more importantly, safe IMG league. However, it remains to be seen whether IMG Rugby will be salvaged from the scrapheap.
