Interesting article about concussion in rugby

[nelly sham]

It was his cousin I was thinking of, left a few years back too which coincides.

http://www.arsenal.com/first-team/coaching-staff/gary-o-driscoll

Wasn't aware of that article though, reading it now.

 

[Mick Lyons]

Here's the link to his interview with HookY.

http://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/The_Right_Hook/Today_on_the_Right_Hook/122304/Sexton_should_retire__Imam_Resigns__Vinyls_are_back

 

[nelly sham]

That's a great article in fairness.
Interestingly it mentions George Smith, which I presume references the head knock in the Lions 2nd Test. I watched that with a guy working as a physio for a club, he said they get training on head knocks too and obviously leave it to the doctor to fully diagnose but was "aware" of tell tale signs of injury. He stated Smith's injury was potentially one of the worse he'd seen based on Smith's reaction to the knock, he was disgusted to seem him come back 10 minutes later.

 

[How bad boy]

This is something that, as a current player, concerns me quite a bit. I can live with any other part of my body getting fucked up, really.

I don't know how it's being run in Ireland, but the RFU highly recommend doing a baseline assessment on all RFU registered players (those playing first team rugby).

Here's the tests that I've had to perform, the so-called Scat3 test:
http://www.englandrugby.com/mm/Document/MyRugby/Headcase/01/30/49/37/scat3_Neutral.pdf


The immediate memory, delayed memory and concentration tests aer hard to get 100% right on a normal day (think I got the last digits backwards test wrong...) so you can clearly see, there's a pretty decent test of how the brain is actually functioning.
Thing is, you can learn the standard responses, and be able to rattle them off whether or not you're concussed.
That's fucking stupid behaviour by any player, but you can't legislate for idiots undermining their own safety.

Followed properly, I think I'd pretty confident that test would pick up concussion pretty reliably.

Any health professional deciding not to bother with it, any player deciding to game the system or any coach deciding to ignore it should, IMO, be banned (and in the case of the medics and coaches, criminal prosecutions for reckless endangerment be brought).


I think rugby has recognised there's potential for problems here, but I'm also pretty confident that those problems are now being properly addressed. If a player at a club six divisions down from the English premiership is being baselined and monitored using these guidelines, then I see absolutely no excuse whatsoever for not having the same for the pros.

 

[Mick Lyons]

Much higher stakes for the pros though.
Not in a physical sense obviously but in the context of financial/competitive considerations.
I'll put it to you this way, if the six nations wasn't about to start do you think Sexton's injury at the weekend would have been handled differently?
Bearing in mind the consequences of declaring it a concussion.

 

[How bad boy]

Much higher stakes for the pros though.
Not in a physical sense obviously but in the context of financial/competitive considerations.
I'll put it to you this way, if the six nations wasn't about to start do you think Sexton's injury at the weekend would have been handled differently?
Bearing in mind the consequences of declaring it a concussion.

I didn't see it, so don't know.
There are much higher stakes in a physical sense. Getting hit by a professional player is a very different prospect to being hit by an amateur. I wouldn't be much worried about concussion down at the 4th team level, as players tend to be either heavy and not travelling very fast, or fast but light...
But if it is a concussion, the medical staff know that and are pretending it isn't, then I would be perfectly happy with them being criminally prosecuted.

Rugby is a violent game, but there's also a duty of care.

 

[Mick Lyons]

I meant 'physical sense' in the context of sustaining a concussion.
A concussion is a concussion.

 

[How bad boy]

I meant 'physical sense' in the context of sustaining a concussion.
A concussion is a concussion.

Chances of getting a concussion rise significantly the faster and stronger the players get.

The chances of getting a bad concussion rise even more. Rarely seen anyone knocked out in the lower teams, it's usually a stray knee or punch.

 

[doolaly]

Christ you'd need to be concussed to play against the monstrous steroid creatures who look like they murdered their parents and batter each other senseless nowadays and call it 'Rugby' almost as boring as watching WWF or that idiot McGregor.

Gibson, Edwards, Bennet ,Duckham et al wouldn't be in a hospital bed concussed after a game now they would be in the cemetery!

 

[Mick Lyons]

https://twitter.com/brettgosper/status/691873514857566208

It's actually admirable in a way how self-satisfied 'official' rugby continues to be about the concussion issue in general.
Sexton is actually being held up as the poster boy for how concussion/head injuries should be managed.
The fact that he is now a pale shadow of the player he once was seems to escape most people.
I've never been more convinced than I am right now that this is a time-bomb waiting to go off, precisely because all of the focus seems to be on 'managing' concussion, with very little discussion of how to reduce the frequency of its occurrence.