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head injuries

compulsary scrum caps ?

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Why not crash hats and real shoulder pads and mascara on the cheeks and change the name of the game?

Seriously, a scrum hat would not stop a blow to the chin such as North took. Also think an over reaction to make them compulsory?
 
1) Accept that contact sports carry a high risk of potentially serious injury at the elite level.

2) Declutter and streamline the professional season.

3) Try to find a best practice procedure that has true peer-reviewed backing, this may take time because frankly, there are many different opinions on the details of concussion.

4) Ensure that no-one believes that scrum-caps are designed to stop brain trauma.
 
1) Accept that contact sports carry a high risk of potentially serious injury at the elite level.

2) Declutter and streamline the professional season.

3) Try to find a best practice procedure that has true peer-reviewed backing, this may take time because frankly, there are many different opinions on the details of concussion.

4) Ensure that no-one believes that scrum-caps are designed to stop brain trauma.

There's an argument that scrumcaps actually make concussion more likely as they encourage a false assumption of safety, making people more reckless with their head.
 
Why not crash hats and real shoulder pads and mascara on the cheeks and change the name of the game?

Seriously, a scrum hat would not stop a blow to the chin such as North took. Also think an over reaction to make them compulsory?

Woah, I thought we were going to have a serious discussion about the single most important issue in modern rugby. Thank god you came along to take the ****. Godd job.


I reckon World Rugby needs to look at a seriously strict concussion protocall. Clubs and nations found in violation receive heavy fines and points deductions. I'd recommend anyone who doubts the seriousness of the situation read Bernard Jackman's book. It's eye-opening stuff and makes me fear for the neurological health of players 20 years down the line.
 
Woah, I thought we were going to have a serious discussion about the single most important issue in modern rugby. Thank god you came along to take the ****. Godd job.


I reckon World Rugby needs to look at a seriously strict concussion protocall. Clubs and nations found in violation receive heavy fines and points deductions. I'd recommend anyone who doubts the seriousness of the situation read Bernard Jackman's book. It's eye-opening stuff and makes me fear for the neurological health of players 20 years down the line.
+1
Winning a game of rugby is absolutely never worth turning a blind eye to a head injury. For all the talk of doping recently, it is without doubt the single biggest issue in the game at the moment. The fact is that we need to dispense of the 'man up and play through it culture' which has seen guys like North play through a serious head collision. These guys are driven professionals and will never want to leave the pitch if they can avoid it, so it's up to the medical staff to put their foot down and pull rank on player and coach in these incidences. I know myself, when I was concussed, I was in no right mind to make an intelligent decision.
I'm in favour of extremely severe sanctions on unions who don't show a duty of care toward players. The fact is that concussions will happen. Mandatory scrum caps won't change that. The worst concussion I got was wearing a scrum cap. It's all about making sure the player is whipped straight off if his head does get a smack.
 
Ali got smacked in the head for his whole boxing career. Ain't nothing wrong with his mind.
 
That Ali vs. Holmes fight is one of the most tragic things I've ever seen in sport.
 
The scrum cap does nothing for concussion - but it's possible there might be a scrum cap that does if you design one specifically for that purpose.

Think Rats has it best.
 


Story of Steve Devine. It's really tragic.
 
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The comments on YouTube are awful. Just the typical macho "it's rugby, it isn't for girls" comments.
That attitude won't get anything done.
 
I have never been knocked out in 18 years of Rugby, and 12 years of Boxing, however I have been bashed up in boxing to the point of my opponent being worried about my long term mental health and telling the ref to call it off or he'd forefeit the match himself. My Corner at the time had no interested in throwing in the towel even though I was clearly outmatched. My opponent still checks up on me. That is the kind of attitude we need about head injuries.
 
Scrum caps do nothing to protect the brain (they're pretty much only good for keeping ears attached to the head). Most of the bad head knocks I've seen have occurred either between fellow teammates who aren't paying attention to where they are going and run into each other, or when a head just gets in a bad position in a tackle. Not sure there's much that can be done about either scenario (apart from slowing the game down to a crawl).

I do think one very important aspect of head injury is to prevent it in younger players. This may mean softening the game a bit for children (not sure if this is already done, or not). And never, ever make a child play who may have had a head injury - perhaps even keeping them out of the game for a longer period of recovery than is given an adult. The earlier the head injury, the more permanent damage seems to be done.


das
 
The scrum cap does nothing for concussion - but it's possible there might be a scrum cap that does if you design one specifically for that purpose.

Not really.

Helmets of any kind won't do **** for concussion.

Short of not doing anything that makes your head travel at speed, there isn't much you can do to stop it.
 
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Not really.

Helmets of any kind won't do **** for concussion.

not unless you pad the inside of someones skull.

from my own experience, the worst few minutes of my entire rugby life was last year, when one of the lads i coach played when he probably shouldn't have.

He took a heavy knock in the game the week before, but i wasn't there so had no idea how bad it was and the other coaches were not there for this particular game. A couple of players said to me he shouldn't play but he was adamant he'd been checked out and given the ok that he wasn't concussed etc... I said we'd watch him in the warm up and he seemed ok, but i said he'd sit on the bench with the caveat he wouldn't go on the pitch again unless really needed.

Anyway the inevitable happened and we had an injury in the second half and we either played short or he went on - so i reluctantly relented and let him go on. 10 minutes later i took him off again - as i was so worried i had to do something - resulted in a big massive touchline argument and him storming off "leaving the club" etc...

It all go sorted out but it remains one of my biggest regrets as a coach, and still bothers me a good year on that i didn't stop the lad playing despite his assurances.

The point i'm making really is it's at the lower levels where you don't have medical support, you don't have the knowledge in players or coaches to handle concussion properly that the serious issues are imho and i think the best thing to come out of these incidents is the profile awarness of this type of injury (much like everyone had a stinger the years after JW did), it's how it filters down that is important.
 
Concussion is the current media bandwagon, ride it out... there is no point in getting wound up about it.
 
Concussion is the current media bandwagon, ride it out... there is no point in getting wound up about it.

oh course, don't get me wrong, it's more that i find the fact they focus on a negative (Concussions are up) rather than the positives (Reporting is up highlighting the excellent work being done in concussion awarness right through the levels).

If that makes sense... it could be a really positive story for the sport instead it's a horror story.
 

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