Six Nations 2010: increasingly big hits are risking a fatal impact
A player may have to die before the violent hits that are wrecking rugby are finally removed from the game.
By Mark Reason
Published: 8:00AM GMT 16 Feb 2010
Last weekend Thom Evans was the victim of a sickening neck injury in Cardiff, but still there was the usual queue of former players ready to defend rugby. A couple of seconds before the final impact from which Evans did not get up, the Scotland wing had been hit by two nasty tackles. He was hit from one side by the right shoulder of Wales' Alun-Wyn Evans, who could not make any other kind of tackle because his left arm was hanging limp and useless at his side. Evans was also hit from the front by the right shoulder of Welsh hooker Gareth Williams.
Evans got up from those hits, ran on and lowered his head into the leg of Lee Byrne. How can anyone say that the final impact, when Evans put his head in so dangerous a position, was not connected with what went before? Who can say he was not already badly injured? Even the neurologists who turn up every four years in Zurich cannot be certain of such cause and effect.
Yet the next day former Scotland captain Gavin Hastings came out and said that modern rugby was safer because the players were fitter.
Fortunately, the Rugby Football Union has begun research into these high-impact collisions. Simon Kemp, the RFU's doctor, has already co-authored a paper showing the increased risk of injury to midfield players because of collisions like that suffered by Evans.
Kemp says: "At our [International Rugby Board] medical conference we again reinforced the increased risk associated with contact to the head and neck. We also recognised that we need more overlap with refs at our conference next year."
He hopes that soon they will be able to use satellite tracking to start accurately compiling data about such collisions. But he knows the solutions are not simple. Kemp has advocated removing players from the field for 20 minutes to assess them for concussion. He says it is the only way to get them to agree to come off.
Yet other doctors want unilateral authority to remove players for the rest of the match for their own protection in the event of suspected concussion.
Barry O'Driscoll, a member of the IRB medical panel, said: "There's a lot we still don't know about concussion and we shouldn't be taking chances."
One family in the United States would agree with him. Preston Plevretes was playing college football when he was concussed. It was his second concussion in a matter of weeks and he subsequently lapsed into a coma from which he has not recovered.
His family brought a lawsuit against LaSalle University, Philadelphia, which was settled for $7.5 million (£4.8 million). Dr Robert Cantu, who testified for the family, said there was "growing and convincing evidence" that repetitive concussion could cause degenerative brain disease.
Tammy Plevretes, Preston's mother, said: "We still love football. We don't want anyone to stop playing it, but I think kids need to see what can happen. This isn't a broken leg. It's a broken life."
Rugby should be learning the lessons of American football. In just the first two rounds of this Six Nations there have been three neck injuries (Evans, Aurélien Rougerie and Benjamin Fall), kidney damage to Chris Paterson and numerous other leg and shoulder injuries. How many more players have to be damaged before action is taken?
At least the referees now know that rugby has a problem. Ed Morrison, the head of the RFU's referees, says: "The key thing is an awareness that these collisions, these high tackles, are dangerous and we have a responsibility as match officials to deal with these incidents strictly and consistently. I'd like to slow players down so we could see it more clearly."
Morrison knows that is not possible, but he acknowledges Kemp's work in highlighting to the referees the dangers of the modern game. Morrison says officials have to find a way to eliminate dangerous tackles, whether by citing or immediate action.
Kemp points out that Fifa significantly reduced the dangerous use of the elbow in football by instructing refs to issue automatic red cards. If rugby can "penalise collisions and high tackles as consistently and to as high a level as possible" then Kemp says it may also reduce the risk.
Maybe Hastings would like to consider some of the evidence before he says: "The players' fitness levels are so fantastic now that these injuries are not possibly quite as common as they have been. It's just the profile is much higher when someone like Thom does get injured."
No, it's just that the game has become more dangerous. Rugby has a life-threatening problem. We can either do something about it or wait for the next Max Brito, the Ivory Coast player paralysed at the 1995 World Cup
