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Tackling Rugby: What Every Parent Should Know
Every week young children are hospitalized on the playing fields of Britain. Yet the subject is rarely investigated, nor is there any concerted attempt to work out how to make sport safer. Using meticulous, peerreviewed research, the book sets out the true risks associated with the sport, raising uncomfortable questions for politicians and the educational authorities. Would parents be so willing to let their children play rugby if they knew that the average risk of serious injury over the course of a season could be at least 17 percent, or nearly one in six?
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
220 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
11 people want to read
About the author
Allyson M. Pollock
10 books4 followersProf Allyson Pollock is director of the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University. She set up and directed research and teaching units at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Edinburgh, establishing some of the UK’s leading undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in global health, and prior to that she was Head of the Public Health Policy Unit at UCL and Director of Research & Development at UCL Hospitals NHS Trust.
She trained in medicine in Scotland and became a consultant in public health medicine in 1991. Her research interests include regulatory science and access to medicines; health service reorganisation, marketisation and PFI / PPPs; and childhood injuries and the epidemiology of trauma.
She is the author of NHS plc and Tackling rugby, and co-author of The New NHS: a guide.
She trained in medicine in Scotland and became a consultant in public health medicine in 1991. Her research interests include regulatory science and access to medicines; health service reorganisation, marketisation and PFI / PPPs; and childhood injuries and the epidemiology of trauma.
She is the author of NHS plc and Tackling rugby, and co-author of The New NHS: a guide.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 8, 2020
A longer review will follow but for the time being; this is in part a chilling exposure of the economic, political, class, gendered, medical and social forces that place serious limits on the rigour of injuries research in rugby union (and I'd suggest many other sports) and threaten academic freedom in the increasingly commercialised world of sports studies and science as well as higher education more generally; this section includes chilling correspondence between Pollock's university employers and the Scottish Rugby Union. The second half reports on a series of systematic reviews of rugby injuries framed as a set of 16 questions parents should ask of their childrens' schools and clubs, with the last 3 being action oriented.
It is essential reading for anyone involved in rugby including the parents at whom it is aimed. It is also essential for those of us who teach coaches and trainee teachers. It is one of the most important piece of sport-focussed public health work I have read in a very long time. I must find a way to weave it into my teaching programme this year.
***********************************************
Longer review
Over the last few years there have been heated debates in the USA over the safety of American football where medics have aligned against medics (where the key difference has tended to be their relationship with the NFL), where former players have for many years expressed concern about their post-career poor mental health as possibly linked to concussion and where the NFL has been accused of ignoring player health and wellbeing for revenues. Many people first heard of the issue when former high profile player Dave Duerson was found dead in February 2011, having shot himself in the chest (not a common suicide technique) having texted his family that he wanted his brain donated for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) research. For others, it was the Will Smith movie Concussion. CTE is perhaps the major scandal in a range of high impact sports, linked to concussion it is a degenerative brain disease the effects of which are horrifying.
It is surprising that there has not been a similar public debate in rugby playing areas, especially as since the mid-1990s (with the development of professionalism in rugby union) both rugby codes have become bigger, harder hitting and in rugby union at least seasons have got longer and more demanding, and with that at the senior level youth rugby has become harder and more intense. On top of this, there has been some considerable discussion within the Rugby Football Union and elsewhere about injury and risk. This is where this outstanding book by Allyson Pollock comes into the mix.
Pollock is a medic and professor of public health (so among other things is concerned about the impact of policy in practice) and for this piece has drawn on epidemiologists (who explore statistically the occurrence of disease) who became more aware of the issues around rugby when her son started playing seriously – she’s not the only academic-parent who has research projects prompted by their kids: the number of projects-in-waiting I have that were prompted by discussions with my son and others of his generation is countless. Aware of the US debates and looking at what was happening in rugby prompted Pollock to take a close look and discover:
1) That this had been an issue for over 30 years, when medics first raised concerns about sports’ governing bodies that failed to act on their duty of care;
2) That the data for rugby is woefully inadequate to draw any sound conclusions about the extent of and risks associated brain injury;
3) That there is however compelling evidence from a wide range of scientific studies that our kids are a serious risk from rugby injury, but more importantly that the game’s authorities have manifestly failed to put in place in game provisions that take the risk seriously; and
4) That this work is intensely political to the extent that her then university, which had close links to one of rugby’s governing bodies both tried to undermine one of the fundamental tenets of academic freedom (institutional support for research, wherever it might take us).
In the first half of the book Pollock explores the politics of and polices of head injury in rugby union, focussing on Scotland (where she worked at the time); it makes for grim reading. We see public subsidy of a major sporting industry that seems to be failing in its duty of care to its players. We see the game’s governing bodies failing to collect meaningful data on head injury. She points to compelling evidence that medics associated with elite sport and researchers funded by those sports may well be acting in the interests of the corporate sport, not the players (and in one well-known case, the so-called ‘bloodgate’ affair in 2010, evidence that medical ethics were violated). She also reproduces letters from her university’s Rector to the Scottish Rugby Union noting the close and mutual institutional links and distancing the institution from her work: as worrying as that is, the conflicts of interest involved in the links between the SRU and that university significantly undermine academic freedom.
As alarming as the first half is (I have a deep professional interest in research integrity and associated issues of academic freedom) it is the second part that is profoundly disturbing. This is where the epidemiological aspect comes to play alongside the public health. Pollock explores what we know and therefore what we don’t know, synthesizes work from published scientific studies and looks at policy and guidance on best practice in respect of head injuries and finds the rugby industry deficient in many ways in how it treats in game head injuries. In the manner of a good activist scholar, she also provides a whole bunch of questions for parents to ask of schools, medic and rugby authorities.
Rugby has a culture that seems to encapsulate the ‘no pain, no gain’ ethos, of playing through the injury and of proving toughness. Many of us who played the game (in either version) soaked it up: I once, at about 14, kept playing a full game even though for most of the second half my arm was pretty damned painful – I had broken my wrist, but the spirit of the game was to keep going. Her case is not that rugby players are at risk of CTE in the same way as American footballers are – the ‘big hits’ do not happen in quite the same way or with the same frequency – but that we need to know more, but that the evidence at present suggests:
1) That the game is unsafe in its current form, and
2) That we need to know more, in a more systematic and rigorous manner.
Crucially, she shows in no uncertain terms that the current side-line assessment test increases the risk of second impact brain injury which has a much higher chance of fatality or permanent disablement.
In the 1970s there was growing evidence that the rules relating to scrums meant that they were unsafe, but the rugby authorities dithered until parents took up the cause, challenged the game’s leadership and withdrew their children from the game. Not only did the rules quickly change leading to a marked decline in the number of broken necks, but the concern is now embedded in the game as seen in rule changes in 2015/16 designed specifically to make scrums safer.
This is a book that, as the title says, contains information every parent should know; we should also act on it – our kids well-being might depend on it. It should be required reading in rugby clubs, for rugby coaches and for sport science students.
It is essential reading for anyone involved in rugby including the parents at whom it is aimed. It is also essential for those of us who teach coaches and trainee teachers. It is one of the most important piece of sport-focussed public health work I have read in a very long time. I must find a way to weave it into my teaching programme this year.
***********************************************
Longer review
Over the last few years there have been heated debates in the USA over the safety of American football where medics have aligned against medics (where the key difference has tended to be their relationship with the NFL), where former players have for many years expressed concern about their post-career poor mental health as possibly linked to concussion and where the NFL has been accused of ignoring player health and wellbeing for revenues. Many people first heard of the issue when former high profile player Dave Duerson was found dead in February 2011, having shot himself in the chest (not a common suicide technique) having texted his family that he wanted his brain donated for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) research. For others, it was the Will Smith movie Concussion. CTE is perhaps the major scandal in a range of high impact sports, linked to concussion it is a degenerative brain disease the effects of which are horrifying.
It is surprising that there has not been a similar public debate in rugby playing areas, especially as since the mid-1990s (with the development of professionalism in rugby union) both rugby codes have become bigger, harder hitting and in rugby union at least seasons have got longer and more demanding, and with that at the senior level youth rugby has become harder and more intense. On top of this, there has been some considerable discussion within the Rugby Football Union and elsewhere about injury and risk. This is where this outstanding book by Allyson Pollock comes into the mix.
Pollock is a medic and professor of public health (so among other things is concerned about the impact of policy in practice) and for this piece has drawn on epidemiologists (who explore statistically the occurrence of disease) who became more aware of the issues around rugby when her son started playing seriously – she’s not the only academic-parent who has research projects prompted by their kids: the number of projects-in-waiting I have that were prompted by discussions with my son and others of his generation is countless. Aware of the US debates and looking at what was happening in rugby prompted Pollock to take a close look and discover:
1) That this had been an issue for over 30 years, when medics first raised concerns about sports’ governing bodies that failed to act on their duty of care;
2) That the data for rugby is woefully inadequate to draw any sound conclusions about the extent of and risks associated brain injury;
3) That there is however compelling evidence from a wide range of scientific studies that our kids are a serious risk from rugby injury, but more importantly that the game’s authorities have manifestly failed to put in place in game provisions that take the risk seriously; and
4) That this work is intensely political to the extent that her then university, which had close links to one of rugby’s governing bodies both tried to undermine one of the fundamental tenets of academic freedom (institutional support for research, wherever it might take us).
In the first half of the book Pollock explores the politics of and polices of head injury in rugby union, focussing on Scotland (where she worked at the time); it makes for grim reading. We see public subsidy of a major sporting industry that seems to be failing in its duty of care to its players. We see the game’s governing bodies failing to collect meaningful data on head injury. She points to compelling evidence that medics associated with elite sport and researchers funded by those sports may well be acting in the interests of the corporate sport, not the players (and in one well-known case, the so-called ‘bloodgate’ affair in 2010, evidence that medical ethics were violated). She also reproduces letters from her university’s Rector to the Scottish Rugby Union noting the close and mutual institutional links and distancing the institution from her work: as worrying as that is, the conflicts of interest involved in the links between the SRU and that university significantly undermine academic freedom.
As alarming as the first half is (I have a deep professional interest in research integrity and associated issues of academic freedom) it is the second part that is profoundly disturbing. This is where the epidemiological aspect comes to play alongside the public health. Pollock explores what we know and therefore what we don’t know, synthesizes work from published scientific studies and looks at policy and guidance on best practice in respect of head injuries and finds the rugby industry deficient in many ways in how it treats in game head injuries. In the manner of a good activist scholar, she also provides a whole bunch of questions for parents to ask of schools, medic and rugby authorities.
Rugby has a culture that seems to encapsulate the ‘no pain, no gain’ ethos, of playing through the injury and of proving toughness. Many of us who played the game (in either version) soaked it up: I once, at about 14, kept playing a full game even though for most of the second half my arm was pretty damned painful – I had broken my wrist, but the spirit of the game was to keep going. Her case is not that rugby players are at risk of CTE in the same way as American footballers are – the ‘big hits’ do not happen in quite the same way or with the same frequency – but that we need to know more, but that the evidence at present suggests:
1) That the game is unsafe in its current form, and
2) That we need to know more, in a more systematic and rigorous manner.
Crucially, she shows in no uncertain terms that the current side-line assessment test increases the risk of second impact brain injury which has a much higher chance of fatality or permanent disablement.
In the 1970s there was growing evidence that the rules relating to scrums meant that they were unsafe, but the rugby authorities dithered until parents took up the cause, challenged the game’s leadership and withdrew their children from the game. Not only did the rules quickly change leading to a marked decline in the number of broken necks, but the concern is now embedded in the game as seen in rule changes in 2015/16 designed specifically to make scrums safer.
This is a book that, as the title says, contains information every parent should know; we should also act on it – our kids well-being might depend on it. It should be required reading in rugby clubs, for rugby coaches and for sport science students.
December 25, 2019
Why not put the kids in a closed off sterile unit, connect them to a filtered oxygen tank and wrap them in bubble wrap.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews