Rugby & Concussions / Head Injuries
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@Bovidae said in Concussion:
Are the refs actually going to enforce the use of mouthguards? So many professional players don't wear them, and nothing is done about it.
Only NZR require wearing mouth guards, it's nothing to do with WR. In this case if you don't wear them, there is no HIA if a head knock is spotted, you're just off with a long stand down. Only an idiot wouldn't wear them if pro
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Ex-rugby stars among 294 applying for class action over brain injuries
Almost 300 former rugby union professionals and top amateurs who blame the sport for life-changing brain injuries will formally apply for a class action against
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My takeaway from that article
The "high tackle" crackdown is purely theatre. The real work, as i have said all along, is to be done once guys have concussion. Stay away from the game, get medical attention.
While i have sympathy for these guys, i think it's a trifle unfair to insist a governing body in teh 70s act on medical advice they won't get for another 35 years. This is not like the NFL, where they had the info and buried it.
And, slightly more churlishly, we are talking an incredibly small number of players over a very long period of time.
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I don't think it's churlish to hope they lose when I read shit like this:
Richard Boardman, the lawyer leading the case, said: “We believe there has been a systematic failure by the rugby governing bodies to protect players not just from concussions but also subconcussions. This is still a real and serious threat to the sport and unless immediate and substantial changes are introduced, current and future generations will end up with the same chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and other neurological impairments.”
Boardman said subconcussions were smaller knocks to the head that could happen more than 60 times in a game for a flanker as they tackle, ruck and maul. These are not fouls but a core part of the sport, and many more occur in training.
If they win on that issue, the game is dead.
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@antipodean said in Concussion:
I don't think it's churlish to hope they lose when I read shit like this:
Richard Boardman, the lawyer leading the case, said: “We believe there has been a systematic failure by the rugby governing bodies to protect players not just from concussions but also subconcussions. This is still a real and serious threat to the sport and unless immediate and substantial changes are introduced, current and future generations will end up with the same chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and other neurological impairments.”
Boardman said subconcussions were smaller knocks to the head that could happen more than 60 times in a game for a flanker as they tackle, ruck and maul. These are not fouls but a core part of the sport, and many more occur in training.
If they win on that issue, the game is dead.
Touch is a great game ...
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@Machpants said in Concussion:
@antipodean said in Concussion:
I don't think it's churlish to hope they lose when I read shit like this:
Richard Boardman, the lawyer leading the case, said: “We believe there has been a systematic failure by the rugby governing bodies to protect players not just from concussions but also subconcussions. This is still a real and serious threat to the sport and unless immediate and substantial changes are introduced, current and future generations will end up with the same chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and other neurological impairments.”
Boardman said subconcussions were smaller knocks to the head that could happen more than 60 times in a game for a flanker as they tackle, ruck and maul. These are not fouls but a core part of the sport, and many more occur in training.
If they win on that issue, the game is dead.
Touch is a great game ...
no it's not, it's fucking frustrating...
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@mariner4life said in Concussion:
My takeaway from that article
The "high tackle" crackdown is purely theatre. The real work, as i have said all along, is to be done once guys have concussion. Stay away from the game, get medical attention.
While i have sympathy for these guys, i think it's a trifle unfair to insist a governing body in teh 70s act on medical advice they won't get for another 35 years. This is not like the NFL, where they had the info and buried it.
And, slightly more churlishly, we are talking an incredibly small number of players over a very long period of time.
Completely and totally agree on the "once guys have concussion" comment.
From what I've read, I think their case is less about the nature of the game itself than about how they were treated after they were concussed. Be interesting to see what the authorities did or didn't know and/or failed to react.
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@reprobate you only need to look at the fiasco around Owen Farrell to see WR has a long way to go to get this right.
But yeah, that has been something I have often banged on about, if you are serious about player safety, and are willing to affect the whole game by issuing a red card for a 'serious' head contact, why is the person who has been hit in the head not taken off immediately for an HIA?
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Possible good news
Probable bad news
New headguard brings hope of gamechanging safety breakthrough
Design from Leicestershire-based company just waiting for green light of approval from governing body World Rugby
Rugby players to apply for class action lawsuit in legal case over brain injuries
A GLO would bring more than 200 claims together in one case, but a full hearing may not take place before the end of 2024
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Some more names in the legal action mentioned above:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/301020147/exall-blacks-carl-hayman-and-regan-king-listed-in-concussion-lawsuit-against-world-rugbyFormer All Blacks Carl Hayman and Regan King are among more than 200 named claimants suing their governing rugby bodies over neurological injuries.The list includes former Hurricanes lock Inoke Afeaki and former Chiefs and Blues prop Tevita Taumoepeau, both represented Tonga, and ex-Waikato representative Vaughan Going -
39, fukcing hell
Former Wales forward Andrew Coombs diagnosed with dementia at 39
Andrew Coombs, the forward who won the Six Nations with Wales in 2013, said in a statement on social media that he had been diagnosed with dementia
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Selected excerpts for those that don't have access:
Two-time Geelong premiership player Max Rooke’s horror run of concussions has been revealed in a new “disturbing” statement of claim in the current class action against the AFL.
Late on Wednesday, Margalit Injury Lawyers filed a statement of claim to Victoria’s Supreme Court which listed 23 instances in games where Rooke suffered “a significant head knock and/or suffered from, and/or showed symptoms consistent with, concussions, and/or suffered from loss of consciousness”.
The claim says as a result of the AFL’s negligence, Rooke sustained an acquired brain injury and psychiatric injury.
“In preparation for filing the statement of claim, Margalit Injury Lawyers have reviewed countless hours of footage of Max Rooke playing AFL football. The footage was distressing, not only because of the significant number of head knocks suffered by him, but because of the AFL’s clear lack of adequate protocols and protection of AFL players. We observed sickening knockouts suffered by Max, only for him to then be returned to play in the same game.”
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Billy Guyton, the former Blues and New Zealand Māori halfback who died last year aged 33, had a brain injury likely to be connected with repeated head knocks. The stunning diagnosis of stage 2 chronic traumatic encepahlopathy (CTE) was relayed to his family following extensive testing at Auckland's Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank. It makes Guyton the first New Zealand-based professional rugby player to be diagnosed with the condition -
@gt12 said in Rugby & Concussions / Head Injuries:
Really worrying.
it is utter shit, and my heart goes out to Guyton and his family.
I do wonder if professionalism affects this these days. Making the decision to stop is harder if it is your job and source of financial income - and of course the hits are much bigger with fulltime athletes.
Honestly, I think head trauma is going to lead to deep transformations in many sports, not just Union. Not least of which is parents keeping their kids from playing at a young age to keep the risk down.
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Makes you think that the complaints about the new mouthguards being used etc is petty, if it in anyway helps stop this. I admit to knowing bugger all, and of course as @nzzp rightly says the hits in pro game are much bigger than what we got/get in park rugby.
I had one fella saying to me at Golf club last week (he used to play for Victoria over in Aus etc), ahhh the young players these days are soft etc we used to get kicked in head etc no probs. I pointed out that was really just imagination I thought, I played on and off from 7yo and stopped playing golden oldies at 58, and in all the time I played (generall as a lock when serious) I can honestly say, I never received or gave a kick to head, or even saw one that I can recall. No they not softer just play a hell of a higher collision game than when we played.
