Rugby football injuries, 1980-1983.

Abstract

The injuries sustained by the boys at one English public school have been recorded and analysed by age, experience, position, phase, duration of the game and of the season. Few injuries have been serious. Detailed reference is made to concussion, injuries from collapsed scrums and injuries of the cervical spine. The paper emphasises that the tackle leads to most injuries. This paper presents the Rugby football injuries sustained by the boarders of Rugby School in the four seasons 1980-1983. The injury rate was 194 per 10,000 player hours, compared with the rate of 198 per 10,000 player hours for the thirty seasons 1950-1979 (Sparks, 1981). Tables I-VI list the injuries by different criteria. Table VII lists the sites of injury; Table VIII the time off Rugby football after injury; Table IX lists some of the more important injuries; Table XI summarises the playing results of the various school teams; Table XIII compares some of the Rugby School figures with those recorded in the Accident and Emergency Department of Christchurch Hospital during the 1979 New Zealand Rugby football season (Inglis and Stewart, 1981); Table XIV records information on three aspects of Rugby football that have occasioned much recent concern, viz:--Time off playing after concussion, injuries caused by collapsed scrums and neck injuries.

Incidence and severity of neck injury in Rugby Union: A systematic review

“…25,[27][28][29][30]32,37,42,47,53 Further, these injuries appear to contribute the greatest overall time loss (severity) from RU participation. 28,31,32,37 There is very little analytical data to confirm or refute causal relationships with proposed risk factors.…”

“…19 Five studies 31,32,37,38,50 adopted a fully-inclusive time-loss definition, 19 five studies 28,30,39,42,48 adopted a semi-inclusive time-loss definition 19 and eight studies 26,29,33,35,40,41,44,53 adopted an all inclusive (both time-loss and medical attention) definition. Other less conventional definitions were adopted by four studies, 27,43,51,56 while 11 studies [21][22][23]25,34,[45][46][47]49,52,55 failed to define injury in the report. Examples of less conventional definitions of sports injury include: the presence of pain, discomfort or disability; any physical complaint; physical damage; and temporary stoppage of the game or the substitution of a player.…”

“…Overall, the quality of reports retrieved was moderate to good (Supplement 6), however two studies had internally conflicting data on neck injury incidence. 25,26 Review of injury definitions of the 33 included studies (Supplement 6) reveals that none of the included studies adopted a sole definition of medical attention/treatment. 19 Five studies 31,32,37,38,50 adopted a fully-inclusive time-loss definition, 19 five studies 28,30,39,42,48 adopted a semi-inclusive time-loss definition 19 and eight studies 26,29,33,35,40,41,44,53 adopted an all inclusive (both time-loss and medical attention) definition.…”

“…Four studies 25,31,48,50 highlight the front row position to have the highest incidence of neck injury. Player position appears to be an incidence risk factor, but not a severity risk factor for neck injury in RU.…”

“…In this review several studies 21,22,25,[33][34][35]41,43,45,46,49,50,53,55 present combined match/game and training data into the incidence data. This method as described by Brooks and Fuller 19 can be misleading because the data depend on the ratio of match and training exposure as well as the ratio of match and training injury.…”