"as far as I am aware he thinks competition for children in any sport can be damaging..."

IMHO, There has to be a certain amount of realism, and promoting non-scored matches in football/rugby or whatever sport will damage kids more long-term. Theres a part of life that dictates there are winners and losers in any situation.
Wrapping kids up in cotton-wool and saying "everyones a winner"....I think it will become a major shock when they step in to the REAL world and realise there are winners and losers, and people DO keep score. I think it will be an earth-shattering, confidence-shaking episode that will limit the childs personal development.

I got an e-mail a few months ago which detailed the "risks" kids in the 60's/70's/80's took, which we deemed to be normal. Such as making our own go-karts (and then figuring out we had forgotten brakes), drinking from a hose-pipe, going out all day and only coming home when the sun set, having a fist-fight with our mates, parents siding with the police and giving us a clip round the ear etc....
Its this generation of "risk-takers" that has developed some of the greatest inventors/innovators and businessmen and women of the current economic status of this country.

If the nanny-state want to wrap up our kids in cotton-wool, I can already see a generation of pen-pushers/call-centre workers and 9-5ers stuck in the rat-race being too scared to take ANY degree of risk, nevermind free-thinking ....or even having aspirations of setting up their own business.

Again, this is merely my 2-penneth. :)