Is rugby discharging its duty of care to players?

After a stellar Munster and Ireland rugby career, Donncha O’Callaghan will retire next year at the end of his third season with Worcester in the Premiership.

O’Callaghan is one of the more interesting pundits on rugby. He does not resort to technical jargon to make a point. Nor does he shy away from the intense, relentless physicality of modern rugby, particularly at club level in England.

In contrast, when Leicester’s Manu Tuilagi was cited, and later cleared, for a tackle on Munster’s Chris Cloete during a recent Champions Cup game, Brian O’Driscoll declared that rugby had gone ‘soft’.