Eastlands Secondary College

In 2020 a new Geography teacher, Jock, decided to start up a Rugby Union club.

The leader of the physical education program, Mary, had an established co-educational program involving netball, basketball, cricket, Australian Rules Football and soccer.She ran an intra-school training and competition process, feeding into an inter-school competition throughSchool Sport Victoria.When Jock told her that he wanted to set up a Rugby competition Mary told him to assess the demand (amongst the students) and put in a proposal so that it could be assessed and an appropriate risk management process organised.Jock did a poll of his year 9 Geography class and some of the boys loudly expressed their approval (mainly because they wanted to distract Jock from teaching).Most of the girls thought rugby was 'dumb' but a couple asserted that if there was going to be a competition it should be co-ed.

Without consulting Mary Jock sent around an email to students in years 9, 10 and 11 advertising the new 'Rugby Club' which would practice at lunch-times on the public oval across the road from the school.Jock would be the coach.

Barnaby,a year 10 studentwas very keen to play rugby, as his father had played it back in New Zealand.He enthusiastically joined in the training session.Jock decided to demonstrate the 'scrum'.Without giving any instructions other than to line the boys (all of them, not just the forwards) up against each other and calling out 'crouch, bind, set'and throwing the ball in.The boys hooked the ball with their feet and pushed against one another.Barnaby was caught awkwardly when the scrum collapsed.He had a long, thin neck and it was broken in the incident.

Respond to these events, indicating the legal issues (negligence) that arise on these facts, which principles will assist resolution of the issues (legally), and indicating what the outcome will be when those principles are applied to the facts.

duty of care, standard of care, breach of duty of care, causation/damage