Foul play in rugby concerns conference

Press, 19 August 1983, Page 17

Foul play in rugby concerns conference

NEVIN TOPP

A form of injury suffered while playing rugby that was highlighted during the recent International Sports Medicine conference was the incidence of foul play which leads to injury. In his talk on facial and dental injuries, Associate Professor J. L. Edwards, of the Otago Dental School, commented on the much higher incidence of facial injuries to the left side of the face in rugby players, which was comparable with the injuries to the left side of the face that occurred during street fights. Dr J.E. Davies, a rheumatologist and head of the sports medicine clinic at St Guy’s Hospital, in London, said that a 1978 survey of 10

British rugby teams (seven English, three Welsh) showed that 30 per cent of all injuries were the result of foul play, and that only 25 per cent of that foul play was detected by the referee, and penalised.

This 30 per cent is about double that found by the 1979-80 survey of rugby injuries conducted by Dr Don Dailey, Dr David Laing (both of the Canterbury branch of the Federation of Sports Medicine), and Messrs J. M. Rowberry and M. J. Caird, of 12 Christchurch rugby clubs and four Christchurch high schools. It is also more than double that of a 1973 survey of 58 teams at Stellenbosch Uni-

versity, conducted by Dr S. P. Roy.

As a result of the conference, several resolutions are being formulated on injury prevention in rugby and will be submitted to the New Zealand Rugby Union and the Accident Compensation Commission. The union had assured the conference that it would accept sports medical recommendations submitted to them by the conference representatives. Among the recommendations expected to be presented are: the control of violent and irresponsible play outside the spirit and laws of the game; education, training, conditioning, and essential specific preparation of players in “risk situations” during play; scrum binding and formation, with particular emphasis on the front row; a more vigorous research programme, including an improvement in compiling useful statistics and the monitoring of important injuries through hospitals as well as by rugby unions, particularly in head and neck injuries where considerable deficiencies are recognised; the agreement and establishment by medical authorities of an acceptable standard of diagnosis and management of all sports injuries, from first aid to specialist medical and surgical services. At present there is confusion about where a player or athlete

from any sport is to be most effectively treated and rehabilitated, and by whom; enforcable recommendations concerning managing and preventing facial and head injuries, particularly concussion; the preparation and distribution of information to players, clubs, and unions on the preventive potential of various supports, and aids including footwear.

An estimate of how much rugby injuries cost is that in the three years from 1980 to 1982, the Accident Compensation Corporation paid $10.5M for 16,500 claims. During the same period soccer with a total of more than 3000 claims, cost about 52.5 M, followed by sports like rugby league, trail-bike riding and ski-ing. Mr Fahey, of the A.C.C., said that rugby union accounted for about 35 per cent of all sports claims, and although there were more rugby players than in other sports, it was pertinent to realise that it was a seasonal game.

Perhaps an indication of how seriously rugby sports injuries are rated is that planning has already started for the next sports medicine conference, the suggestion being that it coincide with the major meeting of the International Rugby Board in Wales in 1986.