A year after a Palmerston North teenager died taking part in a collision game, a head injury charity says New Zealand is still moving too slowly to bring dangerous combat-style events under proper control, even as the Government signals that a law change is finally on the way.
Run It Straight, sometimes shortened to Run It, is a full contact game that spread quickly through New Zealand last year on the back of social media clips. Two people charge at each other at full speed across a short strip of ground, one carrying a ball and one trying to stop them, with no helmets, no padding and no tackle technique. Whoever dominates the collision wins. Organised events in New Zealand offered cash prizes of up to 200,000 dollars before public pressure pushed the formal competitions offshore during 2025. Copycat versions kept happening anyway, in backyards, car parks and schoolyards.
The risks were never hidden. Ryan Satterthwaite, 19, died after taking part in an impromptu version of the game in Palmerston North in May last year. His death drew international attention and prompted leading doctors, sports bodies and brain injury experts to call for the activity to be stopped. Both New Zealand Rugby and New Zealand Rugby League condemned the contests, which strip away every safeguard that the contact codes have spent decades building.
Headway, the charity that supports New Zealanders living with the effects of brain injury, says it first raised the alarm with Sports New Zealand, members of Parliament and WorkSafe in early May 2025. A cross-agency discussion was promised the following month. Then, the charity says, the trail went cold. In a statement issued on Monday, Headway chief executive Stacey Mowbray said the past year had produced plenty of concern but almost no concrete action.
“There has been no change in legislation,” Mowbray told RNZ. “We have seen no changes whatsoever.” Her message about why this matters was blunt. “You only have one brain,” she said. “It is something we need to protect.”
That warning carries weight because the harm from repeated head knocks is cumulative and often invisible at first. A single hard collision can cause concussion, and concussion is a traumatic brain injury, not a bruise that simply fades. Repeated impacts are linked to longer term cognitive problems, mood changes and, in the most serious cases, lasting disability. The whole point of Run It Straight is the violence of the impact, which is exactly what makes it so risky.
This week brought the first real sign of movement. Sports Minister Mark Mitchell confirmed that government work on a possible law change is ongoing. Headway welcomed the signal, but in a press release on 8 June the charity made clear that a law on its own will not be enough to stop the next preventable tragedy.
Part of the problem is that the existing rulebook was written for a different era. The Boxing and Wrestling Act 1981 regulates only boxing and wrestling. Newer activities such as mixed martial arts, Run It Straight and street fighting formats like King of the Streets fall outside it entirely, along with whatever combat-style event someone dreams up next. Headway argues that any new law has to be built for that moving target rather than for one viral game.
“We need legislation that not only addresses Run It Straight as it exists today, but is flexible enough to cover other current and future combat-style activities that may emerge,” Mowbray said. The charity wants new rules to require permits, genuine medical oversight at events, clear powers for authorities to step in when participant safety is at risk, and penalties heavy enough to matter. “A law only works if it can be enforced,” Mowbray said. “If the Government is serious about preventing harm, the legislation needs real reach and real consequences.”
Headway is also honest about the limits of what any statute can do. Regulation can reach an organised, ticketed event with promoters and a venue. It cannot reach two teenagers filming each other on a phone in a backyard. “Law reaches organised events,” Mowbray said. “It does not reach a backyard.” For that reason the charity is pushing for sustained funding for concussion education alongside any law change, on the principle that rules change what is allowed while education changes what people actually choose to do.
You can read the full Headway statement on Scoop. The charity’s view is that the country now has a narrow window to get this right, before the next clip goes viral and another young New Zealander gets hurt chasing it.
What do you think New Zealand should do about Run It Straight and similar games? Should there be a new law, better education in schools, or both? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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