Nature and severity of injuries as a function of their location and pathology
| Injury | Playing position | Number of injuries (severity, assessed as days absence) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head and neck | Upper limb | Trunk | Lower limb | All | ||
| Fractures and bone stress | Forwards | 7 (39) | 14 (51) | 3 (32) | 10 (91) | 34 (59) |
| Backs | 4 (23) | 9 (63) | 1 (10) | 8 (77) | 22 (58) | |
| Joint (non-bone) and ligament | Forwards | 41 (14) | 77 (14) | 68 (14) | 157 (27) | 343 (20) |
| Backs | 16 (5) | 54 (33) | 21 (27) | 154 (26) | 245 (26) | |
| Muscle and tendon | Forwards | 6 (5) | 34 (20) | 33 (7) | 263 (12) | 336 (12) |
| Backs | 3 (5) | 38 (12) | 35 (11) | 297 (10) | 373 (11) | |
| Laceration and skin | Forwards | 10 (6) | 1 (5) | 0 (–) | 4 (9) | 15 (7) |
| Backs | 4 (4) | 0 (–) | 0 (–) | 1 (3) | 5 (3) | |
| Central/peripheral nervous system | Forwards | 73 (13) | 5 (34) | 2 (6) | 2 (29) | 82 (15) |
| Backs | 46 (15) | 3 (43) | 2 (16) | 2 (53) | 53 (18) | |
| Other | Forwards | 6 (14) | 1 (161) | 4 (29) | 5 (39) | 16 (35) |
| Backs | 4 (8) | 3 (20) | 1 (2) | 2 (4) | 10 (10) | |
| All | Forwards | 143 (14) | 132 (21) | 110 (13) | 441 (19) | 826 (18) |
| Backs | 77 (12) | 107 (28) | 60 (17) | 464 (17) | 708 (18) | |
| All | 220 (13) | 239 (24) | 170 (14) | 905 (18) | 1534 (18) | |