compulsary scrum caps ?
discuss
Don't be silly - banning them would be far more beneficial. I certainly think they should be banned at junior level, and carry a health warning on the packages when bought.
Wearing a scrum cap increases your risk of concussion. It does nothing at all to protect against it, but makes you less careful about where you put your head, increasing your risk.
Concussion occurs when the brain makes contact with the inside of the skull.
Take a cricket bat, wrap the back of the blade in bubble-wrap, or a scrum cap - hell, double up if you wish. now hit yourself with the front of the blade.
Did the protective layer protect you?
NB, please don't actually try this.
At the professional level, you can really push the evidence base to rule out early return, with un-cheat-able tests; like an fMRI scan every off-season, and that's the base level to return to before being allowed to train / play again. Hell, the RFU could buy their own for a couple of million.
At the lower level, then we're pretty much stuck with neurological questionnaires - and there's also far less incentive to cheat when players don't have a mortgage on the line. I'd still keep a 3 week minimum down-time as well.
Oh, and as for the spam above, do we report that to the mods or leave it to die?
