It’s not an easy time for school Rugby. Nor, indeed, the coaches who are running it – or the heads of the schools which play it. Safety concerns, and bad news stories, abound. There is vanishingly little positive press, to the ongoing frustration of those who believe in the capacity of the game to enhance lives.

But maybe reports of its death are premature. Despite predictions to the contrary, many children continue to love the game, as much as they ever did. The regular routine of training and playing provides a high point of the Autumn Term. Weekend contests...

For the great majority of schools who play Rugby, the season is in its final days. Few indeed maintain a two term programme through the teeth of the winter any longer. The weather may not be better after Christmas, but a little sporting variety helps the season pass. And games like Soccer and Hockey don’t require as much lying in the mud.

It’s not an easy time for school Rugby – or the coaches who are running it. Safety concerns, and bad news stories, abound. In previous eras, the challenge was to get 15 boys to score more points...

‘Sport’ has a high profile in many schools. It is a word that the sector is comfortable with, and sits unobtrusively in the title of this magazine. The word is defined as ‘competitive athletic endeavour, usually requiring skill or athleticism’. Thus, by definition, it excludes people who don’t have either skill or athleticism. It also ignores the science that explains that approximately 25% of the population are stressed by competition, perform worse in those circumstances and avoid the condition. Is it coincidence that this is about the proportion pupils that many schools identify as ‘hard to reach’? It explains why...