Violence in Rugby

Like all the other various codes of football, rugby has been and continues to be a physically hard and occasionally violent game. There are two types of violence in rugby: sanctioned violence, permitted by the laws of the game, enjoyed by players and found in the violent collisions that occur in tackles, rucks and mauls; and unsanctioned violence, which falls outside the rugby laws and involves player acts, such as biting, eye-gouging, testicle-grabbing and spear tackling. This book focusses on unsanctioned violence in rugby, and describes rugby's most renowned violent deeds, profiles infamous players and chronicles the most notorious incidents, in adult, as well as youth and school games. It examines violence in the past, how rugby violence is changing in the modern game and its relationship with the criminal and civil law. This is the first book to explore violence in rugby in the widest sense, discuss it in a rational way and try to understand why it happens.