The interview with Kearnan Myall last week prompted an extraordinary reaction. The former Wasps forward’s searing account of being driven to the verge of taking his own life, in part because of the unseen pressures as a professional rugby player, attracted sympathy from around the world and prompted messages from significant quarters both inside and outside the game.

Those who took the trouble to show their public support for Myall included current members of England’s World Cup squad, World Rugby officials, the International Rugby Players’ Association, former World Cup winners, numerous ex-internationals both from England and elsewhere and many current players, some from other sports. There were also heartfelt messages from hundreds of people with experience of depression who felt intensely grateful to Myall for telling his story.

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The rising incidence of mental illness in sport, as Damian Hopley of the Rugby Players’ Association stressed in the Guardian last week, is not going away. It is vital sporting bodies do not simply pay lip service to the issue when it makes the headlines. The aim has to be to redouble their efforts to help those in need or, even better, stop them suffering in the first place. Myall’s testimony would suggest there remains a long way to go.

Because the seeds of self-doubt can be sown very young. A highly respected former international head coach phoned the other day and passed on the story of a recent age‑group trial in the north of England. On arrival the kids were told half would be heading home within the hour if they could not meet certain basic physical and fitness criteria. Their ability with a ball was entirely secondary. What does such crass thinking do to youthful self‑esteem and self‑image, particularly for young tight forwards?

Then there are the academies themselves. Myall says he was taught how to be a rugby player but not, necessarily, how to do deal with problems beyond the touchline. Clearly improvements have been made in the past four or five years but not everyone is putting the player’s interests first. At least one leading club academy is telling would-be hopefuls to attend a specific local college if they want to progress. As a result some youngsters are choosing to abandon their A-level studies for less rigorous qualifications, despite having little realistic prospect of a glittering pro rugby career.

The university pathway is theoretically a better bet, given rugby is seen as a “late maturation” sport. Some disturbing tales, however, continue to emerge. The Guardian has already been told of at least one prominent sport-obsessed university where preseason initiations for new arrivals – including being forced to strip naked and complete demeaning exercises for the amusement of others – prompted disquiet among first-year students and parents last week.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kearnan Myall’s account of his struggle as a professional rugby player prompted messages from significant quarters both inside and outside the game. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Some university clubs are inviting wannabe players along for preseason training, only to send them packing again if their grades fall below expectations. Little thought is given to those forced to pack their bags, their high hopes dashed. Someone else can deal with that. Which leads us back to the Rugby Football Union, whose age-group coaching structure is in tatters following the rat‑a‑tat departures of Dean Ryan, Steve Bates and, now, Jim Mallinder. That highly experienced trio had not long replaced the well-regarded John Fletcher and Peter Walton at the helm of England’s junior sides. Now, on the eve of a new season with many of the best candidates committed elsewhere, the RFU is again recruiting coaches for its under-18 and under-20 age groups.

This may seem a minor issue with a senior World Cup about to start; it is anything but. What on earth has happened to the RFU conveyor belt that is supposed to be all about delivering success in 2023 and 2027? Even the most promising talents now face an anxious wait to see if their face fits with the next regime. Who, exactly, beyond their clubs (where they may struggle for Premiership game-time) is looking out for them?

If you then factor in the game’s increasing physical demands, the concussion dangers, the sink‑or‑swim professional environment and the everyday doubts experienced by each young person, you have a potentially dangerous cocktail – even for those perceived to have “made it”. It does not require a post-graduate degree in psychiatry from Oxford to suggest rugby, which does not yet boast life-changing salaries for all, is not the healthiest profession for those with limited other outlets in life.

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Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Myall’s experience has highlighted another vital issue. Part of the reason his story has resonated so far and wide is down to his honesty, an increasingly elusive quality in professional sport. Unions and clubs much prefer players to be heard via their own carefully filtered channels, not pouring their hearts out in the Guardian. The Irish Rugby Football Union set an unwelcome precedent last week by declining to make any coaches or players available to London-based media at Twickenham on the day before the game, as is customary. An IRFU spokesman even told me last season that “we don’t need the British papers”, seemingly forgetting that several of his squad hail from Northern Ireland.

Their RFU counterparts, meanwhile, have started talking in a strange code, employing empty euphemisms such as “muscle soreness” when asked for regulation injury updates. It contributes further to a toxic culture of denial, evasion and suppression, which inevitably percolates downwards. If rugby is serious about creating a healthier environment for its participants it needs to start being more honest with itself.

Spare a thought

South Africa have just confirmed their World Cup squad with Wales and Scotland due to confirm their selections in the coming days. Spare a thought for those who, for assorted reasons, are already resigned to sitting out the game’s showpiece tournament. It is already possible to put together a fine ‘missing’ XV, which does not even include Morgan Parra, Teddy Thomas, Danny Cipriani, Mike Brown et al: Damian McKenzie; Santiago Cordero, Israel Folau, Ben Te’o, Aphiwe Dyantyi; Gareth Anscombe, Rhys Webb; Census Johnston, Dylan Hartley, Uini Atonio, Will Skelton, Brad Shields, Facundo Isa, Dan Leavy, Taulupe Faletau. Any or all of them could have enjoyed a prominent tournament in Japan.

And another thing...

Finally it is happening. One of the home unions, Scotland, is heading for Tbilisi to play Georgia in a capped senior rugby international, albeit a World Cup warm-up fixture. Whether or not the Scots travel home victorious, having just had the benefit of successive Tests against France, at least spectators in the Dinamo Arena will get to see them. To borrow from the former England captain John Pullin, whose team defied death threats to play in Ireland in the 1970s: “We may not be much good but at least we turn up.”