Rugby rules may need changes to make sport safer: study

Basic rugby rules may have to be changed to make schools and youth rugby safer, the author of a major study on sports concussion has suggested.

Paediatrician Alf Nicholson said that while greater participation in sports needed to be encouraged, the aim should be to avoid serious injury, including concussion.

Prof Nicholson said that weight, as opposed to age restrictions, and tackle and ruck law changes might be needed to make schools and youth rugby safer. Similar principles applied to other contact sports.

“The tackle area is where most rugby injuries now occur and application of the laws forbidding high tackles, or clearing out at rucks, needs to be enforced,” he said.

While spinal injuries had reduced dramatically since the scrum had been “depowered” in school and youth rugby, such injuries occasionally occurred in high-impact tackles.

“Strength and conditioning training, higher impact collisions and high intensity games create a very exciting spectacle, but do place added burdens and responsibilities on medical personnel on the sideline,” he said.

Prof Nicholson’s study on the role of medical personnel in sports concussion, published in the latest edition of the Irish Medical Journal, emphasises the need to carefully manage concussion.

He said peer acceptance and coach support were vital to avoid a too speedy return.

“Players are sadly willing to take risks, even if armed with the knowledge of concussion; are reluctant to report concussions and are sometimes motivated to play despite concussion,” he said.