Head for Change calls for World Rugby to do more to protect young players

A panel of former international rugby players, doctors and research scientists are calling on World Rugby to do more to protect young players who are entering the sport.

Speaking at The Big Rugby Debate, organised by the brain health charity Head for Change, Professor Damian Bailey, Royal Society Wolfson Professor of Physiology and Director of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the University of South Wales, said there is compelling scientific evidence that repeated contact in rugby can lead to brain injury:

We now have clear, converging evidence that repeated contact across a rugby career is associated with structural brain injury. Younger players, including females, may be particularly vulnerable. Protecting players requires meaningful reductions in contact and stronger risk-mitigation strategies.

Speaking at the event held at Old Deer Park in Richmond, Professor of Sports Medicine and Consultant Surgeon Bill Ribbans insisted that more needs to be done to protect young players:

The rugby authorities have to minimise the number of head collisions that our young boys and our young girls are suffering when they play rugby. The risks are very clear and we need to protect their futures.

The former Wales international and co-founder of Head for Change Alix Popham was diagnosed with early onset dementia as a result of traumatic brain injury sustained during his rugby career. Speaking at The Big Rugby Debate he claimed that there are changes that World Rugby can introduce quickly:

World Rugby needs to increase the age when contact is introduced to the game. We know the risks to our young players and by preventing contact at a young age will significantly reduce those risks. A mandatory limit on the amount of contact during training should also be brought in. The authorities must take action, until they do, players will continue to suffer and we will continue to put our young players at risk of harm.

Also speaking on the panel was Kat Merchant, who won the Women’s World Cup with England in 2014. After winning 58 caps for England, she had to retire from the game on medical grounds because of the number of concussions that she had suffered whilst playing. Merchant said the changes need to be brought in at every level of the game:

I am now a coach in the community game where there isn’t a team of medics supporting us at every game and at every training session. These new measures should be brought in at every level. Players, parents, coaches and clubs need to be much better educated and informed about the risks and the safety measures to reduce those risks.

Head for Change has launched BrainSafe. This free education programme promotes safe participation in sport in schools and sports clubs. It explains how the brain develops, how sport is as good for the brain as it is for the body, while highlighting risks and symptoms, and how to mitigate these. It’s for 10 to 18 year olds and is aimed at protecting players of the future.