Match Injuries in the Spanish Rugby Union Division de Honor

Abstract

Objective: To describe the injury rate, severity, cause, anatomical location (tissue damaged), recurrence, place and time during matches throughout a season in the Spanish Rugby Union Division de Honor. Methods: Observational, prospective and descriptive study conducted in the competition of the Spanish División de Honor de Rugby with 258 players. The data were reported by the medical services of the previously formed clubs. Results: Total exposure was 4100 h, during which 220 injuries occurred. The average number of sick days was 35.6. The total injury rate was 53.6 injuries/1000 h of exposure. Three quarters suffered 93 injuries and the forwards sustained a total of 127 injuries, with a total of 48.6 and 58.1 injuries/1000 h of exposure, respectively. Moderate injuries were the most frequent. Specifically, ligament injury was the most frequent, and dislocation was the injury that caused the most sick days. The most injuries occurred in the third quarter of the match, and the most serious injuries occurred in the second quarter. Conclusions: The injury rate of Spanish rugby competitors is 53.6 injuries/1000 match hours, with an average of 36.8 sick days. Contact injuries are the most frequent, taking place especially when tackling or being tackled.

Epidemiological Study of Injuries in the Spanish Men’s Senior National Rugby XV Team

“…Muscular injuries were most common, which coincides with findings reported in research on professional rugby [7,32] or in previous studies on players in elite Spanish rugby competition [19]. Concussion was reported at a similar incidence rate to that reported in recent research on professional rugby in Wales, 15.3 cases of concussion per 1000 ph [4] or 15.4 cases of concussion per 1000 ph in the 2019 World Cup [25].…”

“…They are also similar to injuries reported for the Spanish under 18's and under 20's [20]. Yet even though we are dealing with the same population, the incidence of injury in international competition is higher than that reported for Spanish national competition [19]. These differences may arise because of the higher competitive level in international competition.…”

“…The fact that international players have matches every 4 days means a high number of tackles in a shorter period of time, which affects the ability of the player to maintain those higher energy levels and increases the possibility of muscular damage as indicated by Hendrikcs and Lambert [30]. On average, the days lost because of injury are similar to those observed for professional or semi-professional rugby players [9,26] but less than those reported in research on amateur players or for elite Spanish rugby competition [3,19]. These differences may be explained by the fact that elite rugby teams always have a medical service on hand.…”

“…Currently, the Spanish Senior Men's Rugby XV team holds 19th place in the national team ranking for World Rugby [17], and is considered a nation in the Tier 1 performance category below other nations included in professional rugby [18]. The injury rate observed for players in the Spanish first division is similar to that observed for amateur rugby and below professional rugby [19].…”

“…So, it is unknown whether the injury incidence in these players correlates with the competitive level or relates to what is observed in amateur rugby. Since studies for Spain are limited and data are contradictory, further research on the pinpointing of accurate incidence rates is necessary to tailor effective injury prevention strategies [19,20]. Furthermore, these international players have access to medical attention all day every day during competition and this would mean more accurate injury diagnosis, unlike national league training, where there is no medical attention during the sessions.…”