I was a rugby referee - Mike Winter

RHYL ROTARY A call for greater protection for rugby players to avoid the increasing risk of a tragic injury was made by former international referee Mike Winter in a talk at Faenol Fawr. Introduced by Rufus Adams, the speaker, who made his debut with Rhyl Rugby Club’s first team while still a 14 years old schoolboy before going on to make his name as a Grade 1 referee on the Five-Nations panel, confessed his concern at the escalating emphasis on physical attributes dominating the modern game. “Even junior age players spend more time in the gym developing their muscles and body strengths than they do with the ball on the training grounds, such is the focus on size and power,” he underlined. “This is a real concern and one that the powers that be must heed before a truly serious incident forces the issue to be confronted at the highest levels.” A parallel worry that rugby needs to address, he suggested, was the unhelpful involvement of increasingly pushy parents and the tendency of youngsters to mimic some of the behavioural excesses by top soccer players they see regularly on television. Looking ahead to the upcoming World Rugby Cup finals about to dominate the sporting scene for the next month, the speaker tipped the unflappable New Zealand All Blacks as the most likely winners, despite strong challenges from host contenders England and Wales. The warm thanks of the club for such an absorbing talk was given by past President David Morris, himself a confessed life-long rugby devotee.