Ryan Totten just wants to keep playing rugby with his friends.
The Antrim schoolboy has been playing tag rugby with Coleraine since he was four.
Three years on and, just as he was looking forward to graduating to contact rugby, his hopes have been dashed.
The seven-year-old, who is an Ulster Rugby nut, plays with protective goggles, which he needs due to poor eyesight. He is too young to wear contact lenses.
Ryan’s goggles meet EU safety standards but an IRFU ruling means players of all ages are banned from wearing eyewear, of any kind, during play. Indeed, at a tournament in April, he was left ‘upset and embarrassed’ after being asked to leave the field of play.
The BBC caught up with young Ryan and his mother, Christine Totten.
‘All his friends were able to play on and Ryan was removed from the middle of the game,’ she told them.
‘When he got home, he said he got kicked out of rugby – these are his words – “because of the way he was made”.’
Ryan made a plea to the IRFU to follow Scotland’s lead and allow him to play wearing the goggles:
‘They said that I can’t play because I wear sports goggles. Please can I play again? I really, really, really want to.’
Sounds like a convincing argument to us.
For the IRFU’s part, a spokesperson said they ‘must prioritise player safety at all times’ but added that it would look at the issue again after an ongoing World Rugby trial on eyewear.
