rss
Br J Sports Med 2007;41:862-867 doi:10.1136/bjsm.2007.037499
  • Original article

Contact events in rugby union and their propensity to cause injury

  1. Colin W Fuller1,
  2. John H M Brooks2,
  3. Rebecca J Cancea3,
  4. John Hall3,
  5. Simon P T Kemp2
  1. 1
    Centre for Sports Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
  2. 2
    Rugby Football Union, Twickenham, UK
  3. 3
    PGIR Ltd, Corsham, UK
  1. Colin W Fuller, Centre for Sports Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2HU, UK; colin.fuller{at}nottingham.ac.uk
  • Accepted 30 April 2007
  • Published Online First 18 May 2007

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of contact events in professional rugby union matches and to assess their propensity to cause injury.

Design: The study was a two-season (2003/2004 and 2005/2006) prospective cohort design. It included 645 professional rugby union players from 13 English Premiership rugby union clubs. The main outcome measures were: incidence of match contact events (events per game); incidence (injuries per 1000 player-hours and per 1000 contact events), risk (days lost per 1000 player-hours and per 1000 contact events) and diagnosis of injury; referee’s decision. Risk factors were player–player contact, position on pitch and period of play.

Results: Tackles (221.0 events/game) and rucks (142.5 events/game) were the most common events and mauls (13.6%) and scrums (12.6%) the most penalised. Tackles (701.6 days/1000 player-hours) were responsible for the greatest loss of time but scrums (213.2 days lost/1000 events) and collisions (199.8 days lost/1000 events) presented the highest risk per event.

Conclusions: Tackles were the game event responsible for the highest number of injuries and the greatest loss of time in rugby union because they were by far the most common contact event. Collisions were 70% more likely to result in an injury than a tackle and scrums carried a 60% greater risk of injury than a tackle. The relative propensities for contact events to cause injury were rated as: lineout – very low; ruck – low; maul and tackle – average; collision and scrum – high.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests: None.

This Article

  1. Abstract
  2. Full text
  3. PDF

Responses

  1. Submit a response
  2. No responses published

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.