Mike Kelly is okay and up and around.

He will be at the games, but won't be practicing or playing for several weeks, if all all this season. He has played the game for several years and was well trained.

We are more concerned with his health, so we are waiting to hear from his doctor before he plays again.

USA Rugby has done an interesting study on the safety of rugby in the USA and found that you are safer playing rugby than American Football as the lack of padding actually makes it safer.

There is no tackling in numbers and no blocking in rugby.

Also, rugby players are taught to tackle with their arms around the legs and let the tackled player's momentum take her or him to the ground.

Football players tackle leading with their heads and in numbers.

I have seen first hand how tackle football without pads, not rugby, lead to a spinal cord injury while I was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia playing tackle football in the mud with my fraternity brothers.

After playing over 18 years of rugby I can tell you that rugby is not just football without pads.

The empirical part of the study shows ten percent injury rate in US Club Rugby as opposed to fifty two percent for NCAA Football.

The summary report is available at www.usarugby.org/playing/youth/IsRugbySafeForYouth.pdf

We are all happy and relieved that Mike is okay.

Rafael X. Zahralddin-Aravena
President
Philadelphia-Whitemarsh Rugby