Rugby officials trial goggles for children

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is trialling using sports goggles dispensed under professional supervision to contact rugby players under 13 years of age in a break from its current regulations barring their use for contact rugby.

This follows complaints last season over the ban on sports goggles in contact rugby at all ages, including the case of a Darlington nine-year-old who was barred from playing rugby in his Rx goggles (Daily Mail November 2013). Goggles were allowed for non-contact rugby and under-eights.

The RFU said it had liaised with ABDO to ‘develop a practical solution for a wider degree of flexibility to enable social inclusion in rugby union’. The trial, part of a global scheme, will run until the end of the 2014-2015 season.