O’Driscoll: Six Nations incidents illustrated a deep malaise within the RFU & World Rugby
This article is written by Dr Barry O’Driscoll
Progressive Rugby member Dr Barry O’Driscoll was so incensed by the concussion incidents following the second weekend of 6N games he wrote to the Sunday Times. Here is the letter in full:
Dr Barry O’Driscoll
To see RFU representatives not only ignoring the regulations but disputing with an excellent referee 5 mins before the end of the Italy/England U20’s on 11th Feb game, was demeaning to say the least.
They were demanding that a player who had been lying motionless and exhibiting signs of concussion after hitting his head on the ground with an associated whiplash, should be allowed to carry on playing straight away, without even a Head Injury Assessment.
The regulations are straightforward. If concussion is suspected, the player is taken off, stays off and no HIA. This illustrated a deep malaise within the RFU & WR. What will we see them do next ?
I had been on the World Rugby Medical Concussion Committee for 10 years. I resigned in 2012 when they changed the statutory 3 weeks off for brain injury to 6 days and also introduced a 5 min Pitch Side Assessment of a suspected concussion (PSCA). They trialled this in an experiment on teenagers in the World U20 Championships. They later changed this name to a Head Injury Assessment (HIA).
In fact, what they were doing is a brain injury assessment (BIA).
An assessment of a vulnerable adolescent brain in 5 mins.
There was and is no scientific basis for either this HIA or 6 days. WR is playing Russian roulette with HIA. In many such injuries certain signs are only apparent the following day and the brain can be more vulnerable for up to 21 days. HIA & 6 day RTP still does not apply in the world-wide amateur game … just the elite game.
I notice that rugby league have changed their compulsory concussion lay off from 7 to 11 days minimum.
The correlation between knocks to the head and the short, medium and long term consequences, is established beyond doubt. The final stage is particularly grim neuro-degenerative form of dementia – chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
World Rugby will not accept that CTE is established as a consequance. It is indeed hard for them to face up to what has gone on for the last 10 years.
As a young Doctor, I witnessed several boxers who at the behest of ruthless agents, had fought every 2 weeks (rugby players… every week!) They were shambling, stuttering, tragically mindless remnants.
This was Dementia Pugilistica or CTE.