Awesome. Loving. Vibrant: Remembering Benjamin Robinson. Always.
This article is written by Progressive Rugby
On 29th January 2011, Benjamin Robinson laced up his boots ready for his latest school rugby match desperate not to let his teammates down.
Picture: Benjamin Robinson (provided by family)
Ben hadn’t initially taken to rugby, but he had learned to enjoy it and the night before this U15 cup game for Carrickfergus Grammar he had slept in his kit.
Tragically, just 48 hours later Ben became the first person in the UK to die of second impact syndrome playing rugby.
He was 14-years-old.
During the match Ben had been checked for concussion three times but allowed to continue. The last words he said to his increasingly anxious mother on the touch line were “I don’t feel right.”
It was quite clear, thanks in part to a video of the game, that lack of education around concussion has contributed to a catalogue of poor decisions had made a dangerous situation worse.
Just three months after Ben’s death, in what appears a stunningly tactless move, the powers that be switched from a three-week concussion protocol for professional rugby union players in place since 1977 to the current six-stage protocol that allows a player to return within a week.
Ben’s parents Peter and Karen have invested the last 11 years in raising awareness of the danger of concussion and brain injuries for young sportspeople. They are both also a constant voice behind the increasingly successful ‘If in doubt, sit them out’ campaign which highlights that there is no head injury assessment in the grassroots game and a safety first approach must always be adopted.
In all that we do at Progressive Rugby, Ben is never far from our thoughts, and we contacted Peter to make sure he and Karen were happy we mark the anniversary.
“To be honest myself and Karen just love it when people remember him,” Peter said.
“Yes, he died but we were lucky to have such a wonderful son for 14 years. He was just a great kid who was so kind and even in death give life to others by donating his organs.
“The simple act of saying his name is so important to us. It reminds us that others have not forgotten our Benjamin.”
We publish today (29th January) because eleven years both Peter and Karen still consider ‘game day’ as the day Ben died, even though it was two days later that his death was officially recorded.
They have been humbled by all the support their campaigning has received and if you can share a photo or video clip and say “If in Doubt, Sit Them Out in Memory of Benjamin Robinson” it would mean a lot to them.
As Peter says in the Rugby Pass documentary ‘The True Price of Concussion in Rugby’: “Ben’s story is not a positive story - but it can be. People will always want to play rugby and the biggest problem in the game is not concussion - it’s the mismanagement of it.”
With player numbers in the men’s grassroots game falling and players at the professional level getting bigger, stronger and faster all the time, concussion management across the board needs to be gold standard so that rugby’s future can be assured.