“One minute I was on the field, next minute I was standing in the showers! Very scary.”
This article is written by Progressive Rugby
Ben Alexander played 72 times at prop for Australia. Our newest member spoke to Progressive Rugby about concussion and how it’s not just head injuries that are a threat to the game down under.
Despite more than 150 appearances for the Brumbies and being one of the most decorated props in Wallaby history Ben Alexander was only concussed once during his professional career – it was before he made rugby his career that head knocks were the problem.
“I was cleaned out by big Sitaleki Timani when I was playing for the Brumbies against the Waratahs,” Alexander, who played in RWC 2011 and against the British and Irish Lions in 2013, said.
“Actually, the worst concussions I’ve had were during PE as a kid and playing rugby for my school. I suffered considerable memory loss with the concussion playing rugby at school. One minute I was on the field, next minute I was standing in the showers! Very scary at the time, and the one I had during PE, where I hit my head on the basketball court, gave me a headache for days.”
Alexander, who now sits on the Brumbies Board of Directors as player’s representative, says his experience of concussion treatments and of player’s attitudes towards head injury has been excellent and continues to improve as more information becomes available.
“Brumbies and Wallabies were excellent bar one incident (George Smith’s concussion in the 2013 Lions decider*). Players always wanted to return quickly, but the teams I played for always followed the protocols and made the players wait until it was safe for them to return.
“As more evidence has come to light about how serious the impacts can be, I think player’s attitudes have certainly changed. No player ever wants to leave the field and feel like they let their team down (especially during the big games), but I think we all came to accept that the long-term health risks outweigh the short-term gains of winning a match.”
Alexander thinks the recent announcement by World Rugby on guidelines around contact training are a positive move but does have concerns about their implementation.
“If the same rules applied to everyone and policed properly, then I think it’s great and it will add years to players careers, and hopefully more players retire with their bodies and brains in one piece,” he said.
“But World Rugby shouldn’t make any rule they can’t enforce. If a rule is made, it needs to be policed properly, because even if most teams abide by it, some who are desperate to win at all costs won’t, and it becomes an unfair playing field.”
However, while player welfare is clearly key to the longevity of the sport, Alexander, who this year launched Alfred, a simple food and energy tracker, warns that there are other issues that he believes poses a danger to the game.
“The game has done a tremendous job around scrum safety and neck injuries over the past 20 years, and I have little doubt the game will deal with concussion too,” he said.
“But my fears for the future of the sport centre around video game addiction. In Australia more and more boys are turning to video games instead of sport and I really believe it’s going to be one of society’s most pressing issues in the future.”
“Also in Australia, as Rugby Union, AFL and Rugby League have become safer, it’s caused a boom in followers of UFC as people tune in to it for the physically, so much so that Australia has the highest per capital viewership of the UFC of any country in the world.”
*There was heavy criticism of concussion protocols after Wallaby flanker George Smith was allowed to return to the field following a horrific high-speed clash of heads with Lions’ hooker Richie Hibbard left him unconscious just minutes into the deciding test of the 2013 Lions series. Smith had to be visibly helped from the field, his unsteady seemingly unable to support his own weight, but returned to the fray just five minutes later. Former player and veteran journalist Peter FitzSimons branded the sideline concussion test “a disgrace.”
“World Rugby shouldn’t make any rule they can’t enforce. If a rule is made, it needs to be policed properly, because even if most teams abide by it, some who are desperate to win at all costs won’t.”