Interesting article about concussion in rugby

[El Guapo]

Jesus, I didn't know that. Where did you hear that?

You need to do a fucking hell of a lot of damage to your brain to do that. I've heard of concussion causing vomiting for a day or so, but never longer than that.

A buddy of mine works with his sister, but I'm also moderaely sure he spoke about it himself, remember those French Nurosurgeons were getting involved at one stage.

I'd say we don't know the half of it

 

[nelly sham]

He's now an "advisor" to some Wealth Management crowd. Hopefully it's a case he's a professional baby sitter for clients heading to games at the Aviva.

At least Jamie Roberts seems to have stopped indicating he was going to use his Medical Degree.

 

[greengrass]

He's now an "advisor" to some Wealth Management crowd. Hopefully it's a case he's a professional baby sitter for clients heading to games at the Aviva.

At least Jamie Roberts seems to have stopped indicating he was going to use his Medical Degree.

Who?

 

[El Guapo]

Who?

J Sex

 

[Lee Bushwacker]

They're automatically triggered by smart mouthguards nowadays, which can lead to false positives, Prendergast & Beirne came back on after passing theirs.

Only McCarthy and Larmour failed theirs,

I'd prefer false positives to missing serious impacts.


Chabal was part of the worst hit generation, with professionalism bulking up players but no awareness of the risks and absolutely no mitigation.

We're too early to know the impact of the changes introduced a decade or so ago.

That said, I reckon Sexton is in big trouble over the next decade. I'd be surprised if he hasn't been impacted, the number of concussions he experienced and how long he played.

Spot on about Sexton.
No offence meant but he looked quite zombie like in his later playing days unlike his sharper features as a younger player. He should have retired long before he did imo.

 

[Megelus]

Rugby players dont have a safety culture when it comes to this.

If you can find it on YouTube watch England v Ireland in the 2010 six nations when BOD got a knee to the head from POC.
On the broadcast you can see BOD get up straight away and then falling over totally out of it off the ball. Stephen Ferris starts audibly calling to the ref but by the time the ref looks BOD has already recovered his balance and nothing further happens until there is a break in play. BOD is checked and continues on.

What really needs to happen is that when a scenario like that occurs that Ferris goes to the ref or the captain / vice captain and tells them that BOD needs to go off for a hia. Thats what a safety culture would look like. But players won't do that, as if they're squealing on their teammates. Their team culture is prioritised over safety.

The officials are expected go do this on their behalf but really they cant see and keep track of every player in this way. 3 pairs of eyes on the pitch instead of 33. (And yes the TMO and everyone else off the pitch will see stuff nobody on the pitch sees but the same is also true the other way)
This isn't to condemn Ferris personally, its commonplace, its just the example that sticks out in my mind.

 

[El Guapo]

Rugby players dont have a safety culture when it comes to this.

If you can find it on YouTube watch England v Ireland in the 2010 six nations when BOD got a knee to the head from POC.
On the broadcast you can see BOD get up straight away and then falling over totally out of it off the ball. Stephen Ferris starts audibly calling to the ref but by the time the ref looks BOD has already recovered his balance and nothing further happens until there is a break in play. BOD is checked and continues on.

What really needs to happen is that when a scenario like that occurs that Ferris goes to the ref or the captain / vice captain and tells them that BOD needs to go off for a hia. Thats what a safety culture would look like. But players won't do that, as if they're squealing on their teammates. Their team culture is prioritised over safety.

The officials are expected go do this on their behalf but really they cant see and keep track of every player in this way. 3 pairs of eyes on the pitch instead of 33. (And yes the TMO and everyone else off the pitch will see stuff nobody on the pitch sees but the same is also true the other way)
This isn't to condemn Ferris personally, its commonplace, its just the example that sticks out in my mind.

The smart mouth guards take a lot of this stuff out of the equation.

I think coaches and players will have to get used to a high positivity rate on them is the only thing. We'll see people getting benched for things we would have dismissed as part of the game 10 year ago.

Also they will need to figure a limit on things like sub concussive impacts but the correlation isn't there yet AFAIK

 

[How bad boy]

The smart mouth guards take a lot of this stuff out of the equation.

I think coaches and players will have to get used to a high positivity rate on them is the only thing. We'll see people getting benched for things we would have dismissed as part of the game 10 year ago.

Also they will need to figure a limit on things like sub concussive impacts but the correlation isn't there yet AFAIK

Absolutely.

The prevalence of Motor Neuron Disease needs a lot more study though. That 2022 study that scottish rugby players are 15 times more likely to have it is weird. the equivalent figure for NFL is only 4 times.

The scottish study's size was fairly small, 400 individuals, so if you're trying to detect a disease that has a 1-300 prevalence normally, it doesn't take much to mess up the stats on that.

 

[Megelus]

Absolutely.

The prevalence of Motor Neuron Disease needs a lot more study though. That 2022 study that scottish rugby players are 15 times more likely to have it is weird. the equivalent figure for NFL is only 4 times.

The scottish study's size was fairly small, 400 individuals, so if you're trying to detect a disease that has a 1-300 prevalence normally, it doesn't take much to mess up the stats on that.

Complicated further by how difficult it is to medically diagnose exactly what is going on. Things like CTE can only be confirmed post mortem as of right now.

If you wanted a proper medical study youre probably looking at a particular player having brain scans regularly throughout their career, not just as an adult but from the time they take up playing, which is a huge time and money investment.

 

[Megelus]

The smart mouth guards take a lot of this stuff out of the equation.

I think coaches and players will have to get used to a high positivity rate on them is the only thing. We'll see people getting benched for things we would have dismissed as part of the game 10 year ago.

Also they will need to figure a limit on things like sub concussive impacts but the correlation isn't there yet AFAIK

Absolutely agree that things are vastly improved since then, its just that particular moment is the one that sticks in my mind when it comes to the discussion around concussions and head injury