By: Robyn Joubert
The 2006 domestic rugby season saw 18 players sustain head and neck injuries which resulted in paraplegia and/or death. This number included 11 schoolboys (between the ages of 16 and 18), six club and two professional players. Alarmingly, three of the 18 died as a result of their injuries.
But there’s not much one can do to reduce the risk of concussion and injury when studded boots and dust are flying around the rugby field. Or is there?
Many believe that what is needed to reduce the high incidence of injuries is rule change and rule enforcement – as well as the promotion of fair play and respect for opponents.
The school ranking system is often blamed for breeding unhealthy competition and rivalry between schools. Schools are using scholarships to entice top rugby players to their schools to retain ranking status, and flaunt their ranking as marketing tools. And there’s such intense pressure on boys to win that injuries are often covered up in a desperate attempt to avoid being sidelined.
Yet it’s not only the players who get injured. Reports abound of dust-ups in the stands between old boys of opposing teams, of incensed spectators attacking referees, and coaches openly criticising their players, their opponents and match officials.
But in Paarl last year, 24 leading boys’ high schools were party to a proposed resolution aimed at removing all sports rankings in South Africa, in an effort to reduce rivalry and injuries, and restore sport’s value as an educational tool.
Prevention programmes
And there’s also progress when it comes to the crucial aspect of concussion prevention and treatment. Supported by Pharos Medical Plan and endorsed by SA Rugby and numerous professional sportsmen, top sports physicians Jon Patricios and Ryan Kohler have formulated the Pharos Schools Sports Concussion Programme.
“The idea is to bring a complete concussion management programme to the schools and to improve medical care in this area,” says Jon, a former rugby player, team doctor to the Cats, Golden Lions and Highveld Lions Cricket Team, as well as Chief Medical Officer in the 2003 Cricket World Cup WHO HAS NOW ESTABLISHED CONCUSSION SOUTH AFRICA.
“Our programme has a very strong medical component. Another strong element is educating coaches, players and parents to recognise the symptoms and correctly treat concussion injury. This is primarily achieved through our website – www.sportsconcussion.co.za .”
Other key components are medical assessments, individualised return-to-play guidelines for injured players, a pocket-sized assessment guide for use by medics or staff at matches, an emergency call-centre number, and a computerised brain function test.
Two computerized concussion tests being currently used in SA are CogSport (developed by concussion neuroscientists in MELBOURNE , Australia ) and to a lesser degree, ImPACT (developed by ImPACT Applications: University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre ).
The South African Sports Concussion Programme utilizes CogSport – as does the SA Rugby Football Union, and provincial teams, such as the Sharks.
“CogSport checks the brain function of a player in an uninjured state to obtain a baseline score. In the event that a player’s brain is injured, we can then get a comparative score. We are very happy with the test as it gives us comprehensive results.”
ABOUT 50 schools countrywide INCLUDING WELL-ESTABLISHED RUBGY-PLAYING INSTITUTIONS such as St John’s College, King Edward, PARKTOWN BOYS (ALL JOBURG), BISHOPS (CAPE TOWN), ST ANDREW’S (GRAHAMSTOWN)and Grey College (BLOEM) AS WELL AS SMALLER SCHOOLS SUCH AS PENRYN IN NELSPRUIT AND TRINITY HOUSE IN GAUTENG – are offering the Pharos school concussion programme to pupils as a way to prevent unnecessary harm to players, through ignorance of the real dangers of concussion and the less well-known Second Impact Syndrome.
“Schools are very keen about our programme,” says Jon. “ Rugby deaths are a tremendous tragedy and are extremely bad for the game of rugby at school level. Schools want to be able to offer the best to parents or pupils – whether or not they take advantage of that is their choice. It should be remembered that the purpose of the programme is not to keep players off the field but to get them back on the field in a structured way.”
