RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Rugby World Cup 2015: World Rugby injury surveillance study
JF British Journal of Sports Medicine
JO Br J Sports Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine
SP 51
OP 57
DO 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096275
VO 51
IS 1
A1 Fuller, Colin W
A1 Taylor, Aileen
A1 Kemp, Simon P T
A1 Raftery, Martin
YR 2017
UL http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/1/51.abstract
AB Objective To determine the incidence, severity and nature of injuries sustained during the Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2015 together with the inciting events leading to the injuries.Design A prospective, whole population study.Population 639 international rugby players representing 20 countries.Method The study protocol followed the definitions and procedures recommended in the consensus statement for epidemiological studies in rugby union; output measures included players' age (years), stature (cm), body mass (kg) and playing position, and the group-level incidence (injuries/1000 player-hours), mean and median severity (days-absence), location (%), type (%) and inciting event (%) for match and training injuries.Results Incidence of injury was 90.1 match injuries/1000 player-match-hours (backs: 100.4; forwards: 81.1) and 1.0 training injuries/1000 player-training-hours (backs: 0.9; forwards: 1.2). The mean severity of injuries was 29.8 days-absence (backs: 30.4; forwards: 29.1) during matches and 14.4 days-absence (backs: 6.3; forwards: 19.8) during training. During matches, head/face (22.0%), knee (16.2%), muscle-strain (23.1%) and ligament-sprain (23.1%) and, during training, lower limb (80.0%) and muscle-strain (60.0%) injuries were the most common locations and types of injury. Being-tackled (24.7%) was the most common inciting event for injury during matches and rugby-skills-contact activities (70.0%) the most common during training.Conclusions While the incidence, nature and inciting events associated with match injuries at RWC 2015 were similar to those reported previously for RWCs 2007 and 2011, there were increasing trends in the mean severity and total days-absence through injury.