“Rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen”. That is a famous quote by Winston Churchill, the former prime minister of United Kingdom. When you child plays rugby, he not only developes skills on the pitch but also positive life values which will benefit your child in adulthood.

1) Physical Fitness

The most obvious benefit of playing rugby is that your child will gain a generally healthy level of fitness and agility. With the game requiring the child to run, passing, catching and kicking the ball, and tackling, scrum, rucks and mauls in the later stages of their training, this will vastly improve their co-ordination and psychomotor skills.

In addition, this also ingrains in the child from a very young age, the importance of keeping fit.

2) Teamwork And Communication

“Everything in a scrummage is ultimately team work because you are turning round and saying to your mate, I am with you, I won’t let you down. I can look someone in the eye and say I am right beside you, that is what a scrum is all about.”

Jason Leonard, former England rugby captain

Rugby is a highly social sport with plenty of interaction between team members. Players will learn how to work well as a team and will think about how decisions that are made will benefit not just themselves, but also their peers.  Playing in a team and having the ability to work together with others is an essential life skill for not just your child. Team sports like rugby allow children to become more confident around others, work with others more efficiently, develope their communication skills, and even build a sense of leadership. Playing as a team also teaches the child to work together to reach a common goal or objective.

And of course the key to great teamwork is communication. A team with players that do not communicate with each other will not go very far or risk getting injuries. A player might have an idea about where he is heading, but if he does not find a way to communicate his intentions to his team mates, he either gets left behind or trampled on.

3) Learning And Analytic Skills

Rugby is a highly technical game which requires the child to constantly practise the techniques or the drills. This makes the child to be constantly learning and thinking how best to correctly execute a technique or drill.

In a rugby game, the child also has to be constantly thinking on his feet, He has to make analyse his options and make quick decisions in the game.

With constant exposure to training and games, this will nurture the child’s learning and analytic skills.

4) Dedication And Determination

Rugby also teaches a child about dedication and determination. Dedication could be exemplified by spending hours on the training ground to master a skill. For example, a kicker may spend that extra half hour after training to practise his penalty kids or a hooker will practise his throw-ins outside of training hours. This dedication is also partly stemmed from the players taking responsibility to horn their skills so as not to let their team mates down.

Determination is trying to play the best of their abilities and to be better than the opponents on the pitch. It is about trying to gain the extra one meter to cross the try line. It is about trying to outrun your opposition winger. It is about trying to jump higher than your opponent in the line-out. It is with this mindset that will help win games. And it is this mindset that will make your child more likely to succeed in life in the future.

5) Respect

If you watched processional or international rugby games, you will notice that there is a lot of respect show to the referee and the opposition. Unlike football, you will seldom see a player arguing with the referee. The referee will explain to the player what is the offence and the player will accept the decision and backs away for play to continue. On some occasions, only the captain of the team will approach the referee for get more clarity about the offence. You will hardly see players throwing tantrums, shouting loudly or approaching the referee aggressively. Players are taught to respect the referee and his decisions and get on with the game.

The players are also trained to respect their opponents. Despite rugby being perceived as a dangerous sport, the players are not out to injure the opponents. They may play hard during the game but after the game it is all about handshakes, hugs and smile.

In the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Canada’s Josh Larsen was given a red card for a shoulder charge in the game against South Africa. However, after the game, he went to South Africa’s changing room to apologize to the team and wish them luck in the competition. This is a huge show of respect to the opponents. Below is the video of the apology,

More Positive Values

Here are some more examples how rugby payers have demonstrated the positive values of rugby, In the midst of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Japan was battered by Typhoon Hagibis. members of the Canadian rugby team helped the community in the typhoon efforts

In the 2015 Rugby World Cup Final, when the All Blacks were doing their victory lap, a 14 year old boy ran onto the field and was swiftly tackled by security personnel. Sonny Bill Williams saw the incident and told the security that it was ok for the boy to join in the victory lap. He even surprised the boy by giving him the Rugby World Cup winners medal,

As a mark of respect and camaraderie, after the a hard fought game between South Africa and Samoa in the 2003 World Cup, both sets of players linked exchanged jerseys and linked arms in a prayer circle.

These are just some examples of the positive values shown by the top rugby players, who are good role models for our children.

Come Join Us!

Rugby is a game that will benefit your child in many other ways. It will help to develop other positive values for your child. At Eastern Rebels Rugby, we conduct rugby training for boys and girls from the ages of 10 to 18 years old. We believe that every child in Singapore should have the opportunity to learn rugby regardless of social and economic background, ethnicity or the school that they are from. It is a good platform for your kids to integrate with other children from all walks of life.

We hope you will  join us at Easter Rebels Rugby!