Football/rugby boots

[loobylou]

I've seen another question on this on a thread about a particular school but I am more confused than ever now.
Ds is starting secondary school. There is an astro pitch and a grass pitch.
The school uniform list says: indoor trainers (non marking), astro trainers and football/rugby boots.
I assume that means one pair that can be used for both rather than a pair of each. A friend with a son at another school has had to buy a pair of each but obviously I'd rather not, given that his feet are still growing all the time....
Are there any rules/dos/don'ts or can he just wear his current football boots (with moulded studs)?

[KB]

Football boots generally give less protection than rugby boots so if he starts playing in the school team and especially in certain positions you might want to invest in a rugby boots

The primary issue is with the studs. There are strict rules re studs for rugby on safety grounds.
I,m not up to date but I think if he has moulded studs they need to be checked each time for wear/ splitting.

Certainly plenty of boys seem to manage with the one pair for both.

[Webbol]

I think I know which school your son is joining, in which case the ones he currently has with moulded studs will be OK for PE lessons and training. If he chooses to try out for the team then you may need to invest in some others. My son dabbled (more football than rugby) but played both in Year 8, so we bought shoes with detachable studs and interchanged them for the metal ones from October-December (the rugby window). Saved having too many shoes with growing feet.

[KB]

If your school has a second hand uniform shop you could also try there for rugby boots if they become necessary.

[kenyancowgirl]

Astro trainers are specific to that surface...they have a kind of bobble on the bottom! You cannot wear any other sort of football/rugby boot on there - you can wear non marking trainers but will find that in any kind of damp weather, your child will slip and slide.

You will need to check if your moulded football studs are safety studs (if there is any plastic on them, they are probably not safe for rugby). If you can remove them, you can replace them with rugby studs that you can then wear to play football.

Worryingly, a number of people on here have reported that at their schools nobody checks the studs. If this is so in your school/club, then I would certainly contact the RFU as there is a real risk to child safety from dodgy sharp studs. In our school/club, - checks are carried out before every game by the referee.

[quasimodo]

This is a link to a previous thread where I posted a link to a guide given by Decathlon.There have been many previous threads on the forum.
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... ts#p523497" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PurpleDuck]

Given that rugby is often played on muddy, soggy pitches (especially November-December time), plastic moulded studs on football boots are pretty useless as they are much smaller and shorter and give next to nothing grip, so boys are just likely to keep sliding in the mud. Also, rugby boots' studs are completely different shape to football ones, they are much wider and rounded at the end, while football studs (both metal and plastic) tend to have sharp edges and are more likely to result in a cut to an opponent's leg. DS had a number of unintentional encounters with his mates' or opponents' rugby studs and I'm glad they were not the sharp football ones.

We started off with a set of studs to swap between football and rugby (i.e. unscrew one set and put the other set in as required) but after the first few weeks of having to remove the caked-on mud first three times a week, I decided to spend ca. £20 on rugby boots from a well-known cheap sports retailer.

[kenyancowgirl]

Alternatively you could have left the rugby safety studs in for both sports. You can use rugby studs for football but not the other way round. Changing studs always seems like a good idea, but as you found, is not worth the hassle and runs the risk of mud getting in the thread.

[PurpleDuck]

Alternatively you could have left the rugby safety studs in for both sports. You can use rugby studs for football but not the other way round. Changing studs always seems like a good idea, but as you found, is not worth the hassle and runs the risk of mud getting in the thread.

Yes, it was the mud getting everywhere that made it a lot of hassle... Somehow it didn't occur to me DS could play football in rugby studs!

[loobylou]

Thanks everyone. I have gone to the well known cheap sports retailer and bought astros and indoor trainers. Ds already has football boots that fit him. He has every expectation of hating rugby and staying in the unhurt untackled position - but, should he suddenly love it, I think there are plenty of cheap pairs of rugby boots online too!