Concussion: Does rugby union need to learn from the NFL?

Sign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Concussion is rugby’s most common injury but the fundamental difference is that professional American football is or was a game played with deliberate head-on-head contact whereas in rugby, bangs to the head are almost always accidental, from a stray knee or elbow or landing on the ground. Former Scotland player John Beattie, now a broadcaster, made a BBC Panorama documentary in September entitled “Rugby and the Brain – Tackling the Truth” and included film of an ordinary, legal tackle in rugby, slowed down, that showed the head shaking around. The global governing body World Rugby state that “player welfare, especially concussion” is “the number-one priority” when considering changes to the laws of the game. So players ‘passing’ the HIA and getting back into a game would have a further check to reassure they are indeed free of brain injury, rather than sticking with subjective, and so unavoidably flawed, protocols.”