Scottish rugby chiefs are to ban biological males from full contact female matches after conceding that their previous “trans-inclusive” rules were dangerous.
A new policy, to be introduced next week, will bring Scotland into line with England, Ireland and Wales, where the participation of trans females in women’s games has already been stopped due to safety fears.
A review carried out by the federation found that transgender women had “retained advantages in strength, stamina and physique” compared to “the average cis-gender [non-trans] woman”.
Biological males could previously participate in competitive female games in Scotland if they took female hormones.
However, a committee set up to review the policy found that “testosterone suppression does not negate this physical advantage over cis-gender women and so cannot guarantee competitive fairness and safety”.
So, some vestige of sanity remains in Scotland, clinging on like the capercaillie and the wildcat…
There’s an overlap in strength between real men and real women, with plenty of women stronger than plenty of men, but the strongest men stronger than all women. Not only that, but there are plenty of nancy boys that would be trashed by a womens’ rugby team, even without the hormones or the debollocking.
Having suffered intensely from the intrusion of women into mens’ spaces, despite my general feeling of supportiveness and protectiveness towards the fairer (if not always weaker) sex, something in me finds this whole business somewhat risible.
Wimmins are the equal of men, except when they aren’t, and even when they are equal, they call for special treatment because they are different! It’s depressingly obvious, but it’s only the rampage of sexual deviants that in any way opens the eyes of the woke.
So tackle below the waist has been banned as well now, eh?
Good news, but why were they ever allowing grown men to play alongside women in the first place?
My dear sister did once mention approvingly the notion that biological men shouldn’t be allowed to play in women’s sport.
So I of course said, ‘And of course biological women shouldn’t be allowed to play in men’s sports either’. But alas she didn’t agree.
“Scottish Rugby chiefs…”
I don’t know much about rugby, but imagine being a bloke who loves the sport, who knows it well, who wants to stay close to it, and has a talent for management. A rugby chief.
Now imagine having to deal with this type of shite.
Excavator Man: men have an average 50% more upper body strength than women but I concede Michelle Obama should excel at arm wrestling.
Well, it’s a start.
“There’s an overlap in strength between real men and real women, with plenty of women stronger than plenty of men,”
which might be interesting except that the men who are weaker than the rubgy-playing women aren’t playing rugby.
Exactly the point I was trying to make in the post about Seb Coe’s shower deciding on how to categorise “women” in athletics!
The hideously drugged up East German, Czech and Russian she-hulks of the 1960s and 70s set records, rightly expunged, which only now are being approached by real women.
Even so a decent male club athlete at that time would have left the likes of Koch, Kratochvilova and the lovely Press sisters etc trailing in his wake. All the science in the world (outside the MCU) can’t alter the fact that men are bigger, faster and stronger.
There’s an overlap in strength between real men and real women, with plenty of women stronger than plenty of men
There is a tiny overlap. The vast majority of men are considerably stronger than most women. Hence nation women’s football teams getting trounced by teenage boys. Hence the women’s bench press world record being 125kgs.
A good big man always beats a good little man (or woman).
I played mixed hockey once. Never mind upper body strength, every sprint was utterly one-sided.
It’s true I once played squash against a girl who could give me a game, though.
@ Bernie G
Dave Charnley vs Peter Waterman (and I could cite other bouts than no-one here except me has heard of).
You may not say that Peter Waterman, European Champion, was not good.
“Always” is almost always wrong. You should say “usually”.
@: Bloke in LOwer Hutt
Tackles round thwe knees *should* be the only permitted tackle in mixed rugby
As far as I recall mixed rugby males tackling females wasn’t allowed at all. It became tag tackles or summat at that point.
I once played squash against a girl who could give me a game, though
25 years ago, our company squash league was regular headed by a middle-aged bloke with a substantial beer gut. He couldn’t run around the court for long or at any great speed, but he didn’t need to – he was so skilful that he made his opponents do all the running around.
MC is right.
The top women’s rugby team wouldn’t beat an over 30s pub team, once they decided to get fit. All the line outs and scrums would be ludicrously one sided.
The difference between men and women is tiny in some sports – equestrian, yachting, ocean swimming etc.
But in sports where size and speed and aggression come into play, the gulf is vast.
There’s a tranny doing relatively well in women’s snooker (Jamie Hunter).
The real women, ok one of them, has complained that xe’s got an advantage in terms of singlemindedness, concentration, hunger.
You can only giggle
“ 25 years ago, our company squash league was regular headed by a middle-aged bloke with a substantial beer gut. He couldn’t run around the court for long or at any great speed, but he didn’t need to – he was so skilful that he made his opponents do all the running around.”
I had a similar experience as an army apprentice. Our coach had a huge gut and in his 50s, but he hardly ever moved more than a step from the T.
On the strength thing, it’s funny how women like to compare trained women against the average bloke.
@BiND… I remember, in the good old “Harp Lager Tournament” years, seeing a very fit, confident young county player being absolutely massacred by a man in his 50s, who not only had a beer (curry actually) gut but also a strapped-up knee that meant that he could hardly walk, let alone run… The old bloke was, however, one of the Khan “squash dynasty”. Very amusing for all concerned, except the county player – who was a cocky little git. 🙂