HEALTH experts have called on the tackle to be outlawed from rugby at school level.

The call was made in a Newcastle University study published today in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

It states that research has revealed that serious injuries, including concussion, are most likely to be caused by rugby tackling and believes it should be removed from school sport.

Authors of the report are now calling on governments to protect children under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by removing what it terms, “this avoidable harm.”

The study re-examined a large body of existing evidence on the rates and risks of injuries in sport.

It came in response to an earlier article in the same journal by World Rugby employee Ross Tucker and colleagues, which put forward the case that rugby was no more injury prone than other sports.

But, in the updated review, the Newcastle University study found further evidence in support of the call to remove tackling and other forms of harmful contact from school rugby.

Lead author Professor Allyson Pollock, director of the university’s Institute of Health and Society, said: “We need to act now to protect our children from injuries from collision sports.

“Our evidence shows the high injury rate in rugby for children across all age groups.

“There is also a consensus that collision sports including rugby have higher rates of injury than non-collision contact sports, such as football.

“Rugby has the highest rate of concussion out of any youth sport.

“We know other countries are taking this issue seriously and leading the way.”

She said rule changes, removing the body-check in youth ice-hockey in Canada, were the only proven way of quickly reducing high injury rates.

The paper reports how concussion can lead to long-term harm, quoting a recent study which found girls were up to four times more likely to be affected by long-term symptoms than boys, which it stated was “of concern” given the increasing number of female rugby players.

The authors highlight that concussion, and head injury more generally, has also been found to be associated with an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Their concerns have been raised as the Rugby Football Union is running a programme of introducing the sport to a million children in English state schools, up to the year 2019.

The study comes just days after the death of 14-year-old Evan Hawksworth, following a head injury suffered in a youth rugby league game, playing for Stanley Rangers in Wakefield, against Batley Boys, on Sunday.

Described as, “a freak accident”, his father Gary said: “Evan passed away playing the game he loved.

“He was never without a rugby ball in his hands. This is a tragic, freak accident and no-one is to blame.”

A JustGiving page has been set up by the club to help support Evan’s family.