As both a teacher and a coach of girls’ rugby I was amazed and very disappointed to read in the article by Roddy Mackenzie (TESS, February 2) that “the under-16 game is not full-contact and is more a progression from the Tag Rugby played at primary level”.
The girls at the Douglas Ewart High School have been playing rugby for over five years now, and we have always trained and played full-contact. All the tournaments that we have attended have had the option of New Image or full-contact games and most of the girls who have been playing for a time opt for the full-contact game.
The development day that was so well attended on January 28 showed the interest that is about in Scottish schools and clubs, and there was plenty of full-contact being demonstrated that day It would be so beneficial to the game and development of girls if those who wrote about it would take the time to check out their facts.
The girls who play under-16 rugby in Scotland train as hard as the boys of the same age and deserve the same recognition, especially as they usually have to travel far and wide to play matches and tournaments, often with little funding or help from their schools or clubs. Those of us who do have supportive schools still find that we are on a bus for at least two hours before we reach our opponents or gain the tournament grounds and face the same journey on return, but often sporting an assortment of bruises from the full-contact games that have been survived!
Gillian Williams Douglas Ewart High School,Newton Stewart
