CTE... chronic traumatic encephalopathy

[Sully]

GeeRob giving it to the old boys club. And IMHO she's spot on.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-...-harder-than-ever-before-20190811-p52fzy.html

But more likely it was Cheika's genuine reaction, which makes it all the more disappointing that Australia's Test coach took a seat alongside the likes of former Test greats Phil Kearns and Will Greenwood on the "rugby's gone soft" bus.
There is nothing soft about the modern game.

• Ball in play time is at its highest level in history (39 minutes 14 seconds, or almost 50 per cent of total game time).
• There were five times more tackles in every game last year than in 1987, and 21 per cent more than in 2011. On average a successful tackle, resulting in a ruck, is made every 11 seconds.
• Players are heavier, up by about 12kg since the first Rugby World Cup was played.

More importantly, since the game turned professional in 1997 player muscle mass as a proportion of weight is higher. They are faster, too.

Add it all up and the game has more frequent collisions generating more force than ever before. Test rugby in 2019 is ferocious.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Someone who is a non-rugby person was remarking to me today on the sideline of an Aussie Rules game how brutal and intense the game is. That's interesting coming from a position of not watching the game as much as we do.