By Prof Dr Steve Cornelius, Sports Law Centre, University of Pretoria, South Africa
In previous posts entitled "Is Rugby sitting on a concussion time bomb?" and “Has time run out for Rugby Union?”, I have highlighted research at the University of Durham, UK, which revealed that professional rugby players suffered more concussion during their career, than athletes in other sports, as well as the impending law suit by former international rugby union players to hold World Rugby, the English Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union, liable for the long term health concerns, which the plaintiffs link to concussions and other head injuries that they had sustained whilst playing rugby.
On a positive note, World Rugby has not taken the threat of severe long terms side-effects of concussion and the threats of litigation lightly. World Rugby has funded independent research into the severity of head impacts during rugby matches at levels ranging from under 13 to elite players.
These studies involved researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand and Ulster University in Ireland. Players who participated in the studies used smart mouthguards that contained accelerometers and could record and transmit the head acceleration data of individual players. The results of the studies were peer reviewed and published in the journal Sports Medicine. The studies can be accessed at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-023-01923-z and https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-023-01953-7?utm_source=rct_congratemailt&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=oa_20231031&utm_content=10.1007/s40279-023-01953-7
World Rugby has put a positive spin on the results and explained that 86% of forces measured during the studies, are the same or less than the forces experienced in other forms of exercise, such as jogging or skipping. They added that 94% of the forces measured are lower than those that have previously been measured on people riding rollercoasters.
Someone once said that most people use statistics in the same manner as a drunk person would use a lamp post – for support rather than for light! I fear that this is exactly what World Rugby is doing. It may well be true that 94% of the forces encountered in rugby are less than the forces encountered while riding a rollercoaster. However, only the insanely fanatical rollercoaster enthusiast will ride a rollercoaster day after day, week after week. The problem with long term head injuries is not only the severity of the forces that players encounter – it is also the repetitive nature of those forces. A lot of soft blows with an axe is much more effective than a few hard blows at chopping down a tree. The same goes for head injuries.
Nonetheless, the use of technology to measure the forces and obtain clear data is a positive step in the right direction that should be welcomed. It is only by knowing the nature of the risks that one can take effective steps to make the sport safer.
The research has also had another positive spin-off. The company that developed the smart mouth guard has now gone one step better so that the mouthguard also lights up when the mouthguard measures a force above a certain threshold. This will enable match officials and players to take immediate action when potentially serious injuries can be sustained.
The clever use of simple non-invasive technology, to assist with the assessment of potential injuries, is certainly a step in the right direction and signals a commitment by World Rugby to make the game as safe as possible, whilst retaining the excitement and spectacle of the game that fans expect.
The Author may be contacted by e-mail at ‘steve.cornelius.up.ac.za’