Would you allow your 7 year old daughter to play rugby?

My DD is 7 years old and in year 2. She absolutely loves sport, although she tends to prefer the more more oriented sports eg. Football, Cricket, Karate. So you came home from school the other day and was rather quiet compared to her usual chatty self, when i asked if anything was wrong she said that she wanted to play rugby but the boys wouldn't let her. It turned out that some year 6 boys at her school had been playing rugby on the school field and had refused to let her play (thankfully because i'd hate to think of the consequences of my little girl playing rugby with several 10-11 year old boys.

Over the last 2 days she was been really hassling me to get her into a kids rugby team (she already plays for a girls football team) but i'm unsure. Firstly whether there are actually any teams for girls of her age to play and if not any boys teams that would let her, but i guess more so about the nature of the game, it just seems so dangerous and although she's a sporty girl i'm not sure if such a high contact sport would be right (and safe for her)

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated, even if you have no experience of the situation

Thank you

Katie x

Hi Katie,

I haven't posted here for ages, but yes I would let my daughter (who is 5 and a half) play rugby.  As long as they play with children of the same age then I wouldn't have an issue.  I have a 7 year old ds in year 2 and the girls are the same size as the boys anyway.  I think they play touch rugby at this age so it shouldn't be physically worse than football in terms of injury.

My daughter is far more physically aggressive in sport than my ds so I don't think it's unual at this age. 

Sara

Hi,

I work in a junior school where one year 6 girl (daughter of one of the teachers) does nothing at break time but play football with the boys.   She has done this for years even when it meant playing with the older boys.   She never plays with the girls and sits on a table of boys only at lunch time.   In our school contact like scrumming and piling is not allowed anyway.   If your daughter really wants to do this then then let her find her own way.

My seven year old DS signed up for every school club including Art and Football, somehow he has been enlisted for sewing club too.   It turns out he's the only boy in a class of girls and he loves it.   He's a very strong physical boy who enjoys football, Beavers, Cycling and anything that allows him to charge around.   He's a joker and a flirt so he loves the attention of the girls in class and he knows all the names of the different stiches.

Dozey.

My 7 year old DD is at Sports Camp for a few days and yesterday they played rugby. She really enjoyed it. I don't think at this age they do the rough tackling stuff, it's more like tag rugby. There's more boy that girls at the sports cam so they were playing in mixed teams.

I think if she's really keen, you're better off finding a club where she can play with children her own age/sex rather than against Y6 boys. You're right that it would be too dangerous for her. I had a look at the RF site and womens rugby is actually quite stong so you mght find there's a club locally. Here' the link to their site www.rfu.com/womensrugbyportal/

Zarina x