FOR ANYONE WHO watched Ireland’s bruising Six Nations clash with France in Paris last Saturday, the realities of the modern game were laid bare.
It was an intensely physical game at the Stade de France as the sheer ferocity of the contest resulted in Ireland’s injury count soaring as proceedings progressed.
At times, it was incredibly difficult to watch with many in green left battered and bruised after 80 minutes of attritional warfare.
It is, however, the way rugby has developed in recent years.
Three Ireland players have suffered concussion in the opening two games of the Six Nations campaign and the added emphasis on ‘the impact’ is causing more and more collisions.
While new protocols have increased awareness and introduced measures to ensure player safety, head injuries and concussion has become a major problem for rugby.
Speaking at the launch of a new concussion screening programme for amateur players, Rob Kearney insists it hasn’t become unsustainable but the current trend is worrying.
“Unfortunately I think that’s the way the game is going, there’s more emphasis on the collision and getting over the gain line,” Rob Kearney said yesterday as he launched a new concussion screening programme.
“That’s the type of sport it is and to do that players are getting bigger and stronger and it seems it’s only going to go one way.
“Three concussions in two games. I think you go through a couple of games where you pick up two or three and other times you don’t pick up any. They come in ebbs and flows a little.
“Is there rule changes that World Rugby can do to alter the game? I don’t know, it’s a difficult one. Nothing stands out.
“But I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s unsustainable. It is a worry and it is an issue and it will continue to be but at the same time, I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s something that’s going to be unsustainable in five or 10 years time that we’re not going to have a professional game.”
Leinster Rugby’s new initiative, in association with Laya Healthcare, will provide clubs around the province with free concussion screenings for all players over the age of 16.
The programme is designed to educate players, parents and coaches about concussion, the symptoms and the long-term dangers.
It’s another step in the right direction to tackling the issue head on.
“I’ve been quite lucky, I haven’t had many experiences,” Kearney continued.
“My first one [concussion] was playing for Ireland ‘A’ around 11 years ago and that was my first proper concussion and the worst one I’ve had since was against France in Croke Park.
“I stumbled around for 60 seconds, I continued to play on, took a break for a couple of minutes and finished off the game.
“If that happened now, you’d be whisked straight off the field so it has improved a huge amount over the years and it’s important we recognise that too. Collisions are getting bigger but as time goes on, we are dealing with it better.
“From my own perspective, there’s not a huge amount of difference between the collisions in international rugby I was getting eight or nine years ago and I am now. Yes they’re more frequent now and happen more often but the size of the collision isn’t a whole lot different.”
The message being stressed is ‘if in doubt, sit it out’ but yet there remains an element of uncertainty and difference of opinion when it comes to head injuries.
The recent case of Johnny Sexton’s withdrawal during Leinster’s Champions Cup defeat to Wasps was a point in case. Originally the province said the out-half had failed his Head Injury Assessment (HIA) yet it later emerged he didn’t suffer concussion and was only kept off because the doctors weren’t happy.
That’s an example of the coaching staff and players putting faith in the medics and erring on the side of caution.
Conversely, the incident in last week’s Leinster Senior Cup game between Gonzaga and Roscrea caused controversy when the doctor didn’t agree with the referee’s decision to force a player off.
“The referee is the person who ultimately who has the decision and as we saw from this weekend and so many weekends gone past, referees aren’t always going to get it right,” Kearney, who is the IRUPA chairman, commented.
“It’s unfair of us to think they’re going to get every single decision right and if they make a decision on a player which potentially could have a concussion well then he’s the guy who calls it.
“The doctor needs to respect that, particularly at schoolboy level when they don’t have a HIA and you have to err on the side of caution and it comes back to my initial point, player welfare has to be the primary focus and if the referee makes that decision then that should be final and doctors need to buy into that, the same way we as players need to buy into doctors and when we have a bang and we feel fine, it’s not our decision.
“That’s part of the buy in that we’ve agreed to do make sure that rugby is sustainable going forward.”
Earlier this week, Hayden Triggs, one of Kearney’s Leinster team-mates, admitted he was ‘scared’ by the increase in concussions and other injuries in modern rugby.
It was a frank, and astonishing, admission from a veteran of 14 seasons in professional rugby – but it spoke volumes of the strain of each and every collision has on the body.
“There needs to be a massive amount of honesty in this,” Kearney added. “I’ll be honest with you, players may have joked about four, five years ago. Oh I’ll just do the baseline test, not give my full concentration so when I do come back and it will all be rosy in the garden.
“It’s those attitudes that can be detrimental to the game. I think certainly in my field we’ve gotten much better in looking out for each other and there’s a degree of honesty within it and if someone was to joke about it now, it wouldn’t be particularly well received.
“Guys would be turning the other way around and saying ‘you shouldn’t be saying those things, that’s not smart, younger guys could hear you and that’s not a leader’s mentality.’
“As players we have a responsibility to look out for each other and that’s part of the education of it all. It’s happened in the last 12 months when I’ve seen a player take a smack and no one else really did.
“I said to the doctor look I think he’s taken a smack keep an eye on him. It’s not for me to say if he’s had a concussion or not but we need to be looking out for each other.”
One of the recently-introduced protocols is the HIA and Kearney ended by briefly explaining what’s involved when a player is taken from the field.
“I’ve only ever done one HIA last November against Australia at the Aviva Stadium in the 72nd minute. I came off and failed the HIA so I couldn’t go back on. It’s a tricky one, you’re in the heat of a battle and I remember at the time Australia were pumping it around the 10 metre line, they were building 15 to 20 phases and myself and Johnny clashed heads, I got back up to try and get into the play and the doctor was pulling me.
“It’s a tricky moment, you’re in the heat of a battle, you’re fighting for your country and you don’t want to give up.
“But you have to listen to the doctor and the more we come round to that and put full trust in the doctor the better. He pulled me off but I probably felt I could have stayed on, I took his word for it, went in and did the HIA.
“I don’t fully remember the ins and outs of it. You’re given six-ten words to repeat back, you have to walk in a straight line, one foot after the other inside 12 seconds, you’re asked some questions about the game you last played; who you played and what the score was, and then based on all of those, I think if you get any of those wrong you’ve failed your HIA.
“They give you 10 minutes to do it, generally it only takes 3/4 minutes but by the time you get into the medical room, you’ll need to settle yourself down for a minute.”
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