Uni Rugby initiations 'totally unacceptable' says RFU

Rugby's governing body in England, the RFU, has said initiations at university clubs are putting people off wanting to continue playing.

Its development director, Steve Grainger, told Newsbeat: "It's totally unacceptable and there's no place for it in our game."

Initiations include eating dog food, drinking vomit and throwing around dead chickens.

The RFU says the traditions are partly to blame for an estimated 10,000 school leavers who recently stopped playing.

"When we arrived we were stripped down in the changing rooms and made to get in penis size order," a former Liverpool John Moores University student told Newsbeat about his initiation.

"Then we had to play rugby with a raw chicken from the supermarket.

"Once we finished we were taken into changing rooms and had to put a piece of tissue paper between our [bum] cheeks.

"They'd set it alight and before we could take it out we'd have to finish a can of beer."

He says he thinks initiations are part of university culture and doesn't see a problem with them.

"It's not just rugby that do it - netball, football, cricket and even sports like frisbee have them too.

"I think this benefited as on the field as well, you were willing to go that extra mile for your team-mates."

"I don't think it's unique to rugby but that's where we've got to focus," says Steve Grainger from the RFU.

"The values of the sport are what we think are really important: teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline, sportsmanship.

"Anything that prevents that is something we've got to take really seriously.

"I would hope that the majority of universities, if not all universities, would say this sort of behaviour is unacceptable and this sort of thing should not be happening."

Steph, who played women's rugby at uni, told Newsbeat: "Even though our initiations weren't as bad as the boys, we definitely still had a problem with them."

"I said I didn't want to take part as I don't like drinking, and I was sitting on my own at one corner of the room at one point. It wasn't a nice feeling.

"I don't think it put me off playing because I love the sport so much but it definitely made me feel uncomfortable around certain people. They made me feel like I wasn't part of the team because I didn't do the same thing that everyone else did, so I was left out in that respect."

One player in the first team at UWE in Bristol said they've scrapped their initiations this year "because of the stigma".

They didn't want to be named but added: "It means the boys who want to come and play a decent standard of rugby can just enjoy it.

"Hopefully it'll spread to other unis as well."

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