As the interest surrounding player welfare and ensuring that the game becomes safer in relation to brain injuries.
Brain injury campaign group Progressive Rugby which is comprised of clinical experts, coaches, academics and ex-players including former England star James Haskell have issued a 7 point plan on how to limit brain injuries in the professional game.
Their recommendations have been put forward to World Rugby who are considering the points.
The points put forward include:
- Minimum 21-day non-negotiable blanket stand down after a brain injury, irrespective of elite player’s concussion history.
- Failure of in-game head injury assessment to trigger minimum 21-day break.
- A strict limit of weekly ‘bone on bone’ (no pads) contact training of 15 minutes.
- Players’ matches reduced by 20 per cent to 25 games maximum a season.
- Points deductions and fines for clubs and countries who fail to enforce the regulations.
- A radical shake-up of the replacements law, with substitutes only for injured players. This is to eliminate collisions between fatigued and fresh players.
- Minimum eight-week protected annual rest – made up of at least two weeks during the season, five weeks in the close season and an additional one week to be used at any time.
🚨NEW
We are calling on World Rugby to fast-track a package of critical elite player welfare requirements to protect them from the brain jury crisis blighting the game.
A package addressing the youth and community game will also be released soon.
➡️ https://t.co/oGbCkTGTrh pic.twitter.com/SXBldl4Zzt
— Progressive Rugby (@ProgressiveRug) August 3, 2022
Other points that have been forward is a limit of the tackle height, proposing nipple height as the cut off. As well as putting an end to the current twenty-minute red card proposal that the Southern Hemisphere union SANZAAR have been pushing.
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