Progressive Rugby issue package of urgent elite player welfare requirements to address brain injury crisis
This article is written by Progressive Rugby
Progressive Rugby has called on World Rugby to fast-track a package of player welfare requirements into the elite game to urgently address the brain jury crisis blighting the game.
The call comes just days after the publication of a peer-reviewed paper, which concluded that, based on analysis of existing research, a ‘causal link’ does exist between repeated head injury (RHI) and the neurodegenerative disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
The player welfare group says the highest priority for the game must be to reduce player’s exposure to the number of brain injuries and sub concussive impacts each season. They hope this will ensure that a majority of elite players can enjoy an extended career and improved long-term health.
The measures, produced in consultation with former and current elite players, are below, along with supplementary measures Progressive Rugby want to see investigated at pace:
Minimum 21-day non-negotiable blanket stand down after a brain injury, irrespective of elite player’s concussion history.
Failure of in-game HIA1 to trigger minimum 21-day period
Mandated weekly ‘bone on bone’ contact training limit of 15 minutes
Game limit reduced by 20% to 25 matches and mandated
Stiff punishments including Club/Country fines and points deductions for non-compliance
Minimum 8 week protected annual rest including at least 2 weeks in-season, with a further 5-week break between seasons and additional one week to be used at any time
Injury replacements only to eliminate collisions between fatigued and fresh players
World Rugby should look to complement these measures with:
Establishment of a Global calendar
Mandatory annual brain injury education
Brain injury health passports
Maximum tackle height at base of sternum
Further investigation of law changes around rucks and tackle area to protect against exposure to impacts to the head and neck area
Abolition of 20-minute red card to provide a consistent deterrent
Their welfare package follow the news that over 185 players were suing World Rugby, the RFU and WRU for negligence, claiming that playing the sport has left them brain damaged, including RWC 2003-winner Steve Thompson and most-recently Wales Grand-Slam-winning captain Ryan Jones.
Just days after the bombshell news it was announced that both Irish and Scottish players would also be taking their respective governing bodies to court.
Progressive Rugby’s Professor John Fairclough said:
“Elite rugby has to hit the reset button right now because these are the players in the shop window of this great sport.
“There is now no other option but to drastically reduce the number of impacts a player receives over their career and take extreme caution with the management of players who do suffer brain injuries.
We are talking about the brain, the most crucial but vulnerable organ we have.
So that means it’s non-negotiable that we err on the side of caution. If evidence then comes to light that allows that cautious stance to be revisited that’s fine. It has to be the right way to do it.”
A warning shot around inaction has already been fired, with the RFU’s sister Rugby Football League (RFL) reporting that their insurance had quadrupled amid concerns around concussion, an issue that will raise significant concerns for clubs and schools across the UK.
Prof Fairclough said:
“The elite game has changed beyond recognition since professionalism and is no longer the contact sport that many of us grew up watching from the stands.
“A focus on producing increasingly powerful, fitter, faster and dynamic athletes, has resulted in collisions of extraordinary magnitude. In the elite game players no longer seem coached to evade the opposition but rather to physically dominate them by running into and over them.
But sadly, while elite players’ bodies have transformed to better dish out and withstand these colossal impacts, their brains have remained just as vulnerable as ever.”
Progressive Rugby are now urgently addressing the community and youth game, especially in the light of the academic paper highlighting significant concerns that young brains are more susceptible to risk from repeated sub-concussions.
“It’s non-negotiable that we err on the side of caution.”