Shaken by recent deaths of young players in France, French Rugby Federation president Bernard Laporte says the game is still safe.

Rugby, said Laporte, "is half as dangerous as 10 years ago."

The former France coach was speaking at a lunch for the Bien Joue ("Well Played") program, launched in French schools after Louis Fajfrowski, 21, died following a heavy tackle playing for Aurillac in August.

A 17-year-old amateur Adrien Descrulhes died in May, a day after receiving a blow to the head playing for amateur club Billom. In December, Stade Francais youth flanker Nicolas Chauvin, 18, died after breaking his neck. At the start of the year, Nathan Soyeux, a 23-year-old student, died in hospital in Dijon after a tackle in a match. 

It was the fourth rugby death in France in eight months

"An accident is always an accident too many, but when we look at the statistics, we see that rugby is half as dangerous today as it was 10 years ago," Laporte told journalists.

Since Chauvin's death, the FFR and the French league have suggested World Rugby consider banning tackles by more than one player at a time and lowering the permitted tackle line to from the shoulders to the waist.

That "would also make the game more fluid," Laporte said.

"There is no safe sport. It does not exist," Laporte continued. 

"When we look at all the other sports, we cannot say that rugby is the most dangerous, far from it, it's not true. Statistics show that in some sports there are far more accidents," Laporte said, citing cycling and "mountain" sports.

Meanwhile, World Rugby has scheduled a forum on injury prevention in Paris, March 19-20, and has started more safety initiatives.

The Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project for the English elite game published last week said concussions have dropped by 14 percent. 

World Rugby, in collaboration with its unions and player representatives, will host a dedicated injury prevention laws review forum in Paris in March, kicking off the quadrennial laws review cycle. With the tackle responsible for up to 50 percent of match injuries and 73 percent of concussions in elite rugby, stakeholders will review the latest global injury surveillance data and consider the three-phase approach to lowering the tackle height, while being encouraged to table suggestions for innovative and robust injury-prevention via possible law alteration.

"Our major focus is the tackle, which is the most common facet of the game, and this year we will complete the initial analysis on the reduced tackle height trials," said World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont. "We are also hosting a wide-ranging laws forum in Paris in March, with a focus on injury-prevention and how evaluation and evolution of the laws might positively impact this area within the next four-year laws review cycle."

© Agence France-Presse
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