Ringland: Time to cut back on subs

FORMER Ireland and British and Irish Lions player Trevor Ringland has called for rugby to “de-physicalise” by reducing the number of substitutes a team can use in a game. 

- NICK POWELL

Ex-Ulster winger Ringland, who was part of the Ireland side that won three Five Nations titles in four years (1982, 1983 and 1985), has witnessed a huge rise in physicality since he stopped playing the game, evidenced by a 2015 Imperial College study that found a 10.2 per cent rise in the weight of players in his position since professionalism entered the sport.

That study found that the average weight of all players had increased by 10.14 per cent from 1995, with back rowers’ average weights increasing by 6.7 per cent despite players being one per cent shorter.

After doing his own, albeit less scientific, research Ringland believes that the size of players is responsible for the increases in injury and concussion problems that have plagued the game.

“We need to find a way to de-physicalise – if that’s a proper word – the sport. It’s just too physical at the minute,” he said, speaking on The Rugby Paper podcast.

“I did a study amongst a group of players from my era about the level of injury and concussions they’d had, and in 100 years of rugby between the ten of us there were ten concussions. I had two at school, and I didn’t have any during my international career whatsoever.