Contact sports and cotton wool?

That is a shame AD, can put of children for life. I was very lucky and had inspirational sports teachers. Wasn't too fond of the music teacher though, hence I just used to hop through the window and do a double games lesson! I think it made sense to both staff, I was good at sport, but detested music, at least what they were trying to teach me! My sister is the other extreme, very good musician, hopeless at most sports!

Tag rugby sounds a great idea. I lost touch with Rugby teaching/coaching when I left school, but male PE Students at my college (all four of them!) used to go off to another campus to hone their teaching skills.

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My memories of PE and the teachers are exactly like that portrayed by Brian Glover in Kes . 

Wasn't Kes based on a novel (A Kestrel For A Knave)? It's about as similar to modern school PE teachers as Emmerdale is to agriculture. 

No PE teacher would dare to force unwilling students into playing rugby in these "sue first, ask questions later" days! 

I think the only voluntary bit is being a member of the teams that compete, children either want to or not. I remember some girls good at certain sports who were just not interested enough to want to be in a school team. They had to take part in the lessons, but I don't recall anyone having to do anything dangerous, at least unless they were fooling about! It was a very sporty school I went to, so most girls did something, even if it was just cheering on from sides! It was all girls by the way, hence Rugby is something I have never taken part in, but it certainly looks a dangerous team sport at times. Contested scrums seem to be a major hazard!

One of our daughters was good at gymnastics, seeing her doing somersaults along a narrow beam used to be a bit heart stopping. So many sports have an element of danger, I can't see why anyone should single rugby out, hopefully it's their moment of fame till commonsense comes to the surface.

Its  the  usual  problem  with  children  of  school  age,  I  guess !  You  can  take  any  year  at  any  reasonably  sized  school  and  you  will  get  children  able  to  substitute  for  the  Christmas  Fairy  along  side  others  who  could   mimic  the  Incredible  Hulk !

And  thats  the  major  problem  with  Schools  Sport  --  the  talent  may  be  there  but  the  discrepancy  in  size  is  all  !!  To  misquote  somebody  or  other  ==>  The  Bigger  They  Are  The  Harder  They  Fall  On  You  !