Every week, teachers and coaches enquire of their colleagues, "How was your game?" The response they get says a lot about the culture of sport in a school. If the answer is always numbers first, then the primacy of competitive success is clear. However, what if the response is, "We had a great game"?

What does this mean? Firstly it suggests a value system that sees significance in the quality of the experience. At least alongside the score. Further, it implies that some games are better than others. So, what determines this?

...

Participation in team games has been compulsory in English schools since before most sports had written rules. The rationale was initially one of social control – the need to keep all pupils on the premises in the afternoon – but later justified by the presumed capacity to influence character building through the development of courage and selflessness. The primacy of team games has been more or less unchallenged since then. Whilst all other dimensions of school life have changed out of all recognition, it is remarkable that the assumption underlying compulsory team games, and the time allocated to them, has...

Many schools struggle to win the commitment of their pupils to play in teams every weekend. And co-operation from parents to make social arrangements which do not clash. As well as to ensure that children want to play in long distance away games. "Some Fridays are a nightmare, scratching teams together. Sometimes we are almost begging kids to play," says one Director of Sport at a prominent day school.

Then the waters are muddied by the issue of compulsory rugby. Can and should pupils be compelled to play in matches that are potentially dangerous, or for which...