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Abstract
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World Rugby (the world governing body for rugby) has been committed to evidence-based risk management of concussion since introducing an off-field assessment in 2012. That year, the Concussion in Sports consensus meeting recommended the SCAT3 as a standardised assessment for concussion in sport. The SCAT3 and SCAT5 are the basis for the World Rugby Head Injury Assessment (HIA) protocol.1
World Rugby faced two significant obstacles when aiming to implement a concussion risk management plan: (1) the global nature of the game--rugby is played in over 120 countries, and (2) rugby is a limited-interchange sport (players unable to return to play), rather than free-interchange sport (unlike many other team sports). As a limited-interchange sport, rugby needed to change the game's laws (rules) to allow temporary substitution for head injury.
The World Rugby Research Unit (WRRU) comprises sports medicine doctors with significant on-field experience working with a team of sports scientists, academic researchers and rugby administrators. This tripartite approach is supported by Hanson et al2 who proposed using three complementary expert groups, termed as content experts (researchers), process experts (clinicians) and context experts (members of sporting bodies) to close the gaps between injury prevention research and safety promotion practice.2
The WRRU has a primary goal to improve player welfare and safety in rugby. It has recognised that the critical driver of change in managing injuries and in particular head injuries within the sport should be based on 'evidence, not emotion'...
Language: en |