University of Essex studying impact of concussion in Rugby
They're working with Colchester Rugby club
Researchers from the University of Essex are investigating the effects of concussion in grassroots rugby.
They're working with Colchester Rugby club to examine collisions, head injuries and recovery time.
The research team, from Essex’s School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences, will record impacts and rotational forces experienced by players using wearable GPS units with embedded artificial intelligence.
This will provide data which Dr Ben Jones will then be able to study.
Dr Jones, a former England 7’s international who also played scrumhalf for Premiership Rugby sides Northampton Saints and Worcester Warriors, said: “This isn’t a case of trying to make the game soft or ruining it for the millions of people who enjoy it the world over, we just need to know more about its potential risks.
“For years elite athletes have had the benefit of high-level analysis whereas the clubhouses that are the foundation of the game have been left behind.
“Through this study, we can help improve safety and safeguard the sport for future generations.”
Dr Jones' comments come as the impact of repeated head trauma from Rugby has been in the news recently, with professional players including England's Steve Thompson and former Wales captain Ryan Jones, announcing they are suffering from early-onset dementia.
He's hoping the study might prevent these later in life issues: "These are things that happen to you later in life. We're wondering what happens just across a season acutely. Do we see changes that we can pick up? If we can pick up those changes, can we use them to give better information or track people now, rather than after the fact?"
Ben is working Colchester Rugby Club, who play in the Regional 1 South East League. He explains why he wanted to run the study at a grassroots club: "A lot of this work already goes on in the elite game, but there's only a small percentage of the population that play elite level sport, whereas there's a lot of people, young, old, middle-aged, who play sport as amateurs, yet we don't have information about what's happening to them."
Colchester have welcomed the study and the data it will give them, with Club Chairman Karl O’Brien saying: “This research underlines our commitment to player welfare.
“We are a large community club with five senior men’s teams, in excess of 600 mini and youth players, an ever-growing number of girls and ladies' teams plus a newly formed LGBT squad of players and as always are fully committed to all of these players enjoying their rugby in a safe environment.
“To be allowed to work with the excellent team from the University of Essex is absolutely fantastic for us all and we are proud to be helping people to enjoy the great game for many years to come as safely as possible.”