Epidemiology of Time-Loss Injuries in Senior and Under-18 Portuguese Male Rugby Players

Abstract

Rugby union has one of the highest injury incidence rates in team sports, however, most of the available data focus on the epidemiology of injuries in countries where rugby is popular. We aimed to report the incidence rate and relevant epidemiological aspects of injuries occurred in a group of Portuguese male rugby players. A prospective cohort study was conducted with a group of 45 senior and 32 under-18 male players (total of 77 players). Outcome measures included injury incidence, position, type, location and severity of injuries. The match injury incidence for all players was 55.84 per 1000 player match-hours (66.66 for seniors, 42.85 for under-18), while mean time-loss for injury was 20.79 days. No statistical differences were found between groups. Lower limb injuries accounted for 60.5% of all injuries, while joint/ligament injuries were the most prevalent type. Contact events were responsible for 65.1% of injuries. Despite the limitations, the obtained data are consistent with the literature. Time-loss injuries seem highly prevalent in rugby union and the incidence rates found in this Portuguese-based study were lower than the reported for international and senior men’s professional rugby union, but higher than those occurring in community rugby in tier-1 countries. The authors believe these data reinforce the need to develop and implement effective injury surveillance and prevention programs.

United States Under-19 Rugby-7s: Incidence and Nature of Match Injuries During a 5-year Epidemiological Study

“…Lower extremity injuries (39%) and ligament sprains (29%) were the most common injuries in the current cohort, which is consistent with literature on comparative aged U.S. high school and international Rugby-15s [17,18]. These lower extremity rates were higher than a similar aged international U18 Rugby-15s (14%) [29] but lower than more competitive international U20 Rugby-15s players (47.3-50.6%) [27,28]. Meanwhile, previous literature on U.S. community Rugby-7s noted lower rates (14.6%) [2] among lower extremity injuries than in elite Rugby-7s (47.1-56.3%) [6,34] and Olympians (50-62.5%) [6].…”

“…The current U.S. U19 cohort's mean age was similar to Rugby-15s adolescents in the literature [17]. The current study's U19 cohort forwards and backs were shorter and weighed less than players in prior cohorts of international adolescent Rugby-15s [17,20], but were comparable to an international U18 Rugby-15s playing cohort [29]. Differences in anthropometrics between the current U.S. U19 cohort and international players may reflect the different physical demands of the two codes, but may also be due to the existence of more structured training and conditioning programs for Rugby-15s in established countries, as compared to Rugby-7s in emerging rugby nations, which likely lack ancillary training for the Rugby-7s format.…”

“…Comparing literature, the proportion of time-loss upper extremity injuries was higher in the current study (both sexes 31.9%, 41 days; males 31.4%, 47 days; females 33.3%, 25 days) than international populations, among adolescent boys Rugby-15s (academy 28.4%, 31 days; school 24.4% 52 days) and U18 Rugby-15s (14%; 9.33 days) [20,29], but lower than competitive international U20 Rugby-15s players (27.1-28.2%) [27,28]. Elite Rugby-7s players, National players and Olympians respectively, note upper extremity injuries to range between 17.8-28.8% and 25-35.7% [6,34].…”

“…Time-loss injury incidences of U.S. Rugby-7s U19 players were lower when compared to prior U.S. cohorts of community U.S. Rugby-7s (49.2-55.4/1000 ph) [2,11,13]. Time-loss (32.8/1000 ph) and medical-attention [19] and had a longer time absent from play than Rugby-15s U18 players (20.8 mean days) [29]. U.S. U19 Rugby-7s players were therefore injured at similar rates to similarly aged cohorts [20,[27][28][29], but may have more severe injuries when a time-loss injury occurred.…”

“…In addition to upper extremity injuries, the proportion of time-loss head and neck injuries, including concussions, were also higher (combined 23.2%; males 21.6%; females 27.8%) among U.S. Rugby-7s U19 participants than U.S. Rugby-15s high school combined (both sexes 21.7%; males 22.1%; females 19.5%) [17], and international cohorts, male adolescent Rugby-15 (academy 13.8%, 13 days; school 17.8%) [20], U18 Rugby-15s (14%; 18 days) [29], and competitive U20 Rugby-15s (12.1-18.4%) [27,28]. These injury proportions were lower than head and neck injury incidences reported in a previous U.S. community Rugby-7s cohort (31.3%) [2].…”