As a former football player and someone who enjoys many different sports, I would say I have a general appreciation for the difficulty and love for the game. We recently went to a rugby game, where we got to enjoy the competition for the national rugby championships of France. I must say for someone who wasn’t the most familiar with the rules, I had a lot of fun cheering for both teams as I had no allegiances. The hits in the game were the most exciting part second only to a team managing to score. The excitement from the crowd was palpable from the beginning of the game to the end every time there was a hit. There were at least 10 instances where a player who was hit was down on the field and took an extended period of time to get up, accompanied by trainers who likely provided a painkiller. As much as this was part of the sport and how much I was impressed by the hits and physical prowess of the players, I could not help but think- this must have short and long term effects on the brains of these players! I knew a little about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and how it was a neurodegenerative disease that affected most of the players in the National Football League (NFL) in the United States, but I had wondered what effect this may have for rugby players, who played the sport without pads or helmets (Casson et al, 2014).
There is actually a study done on the effects of recurrent concussions on rugby players that answered these questions circling through my head that I read about. It stated that retired rugby players who had been playing at the national or international championship level (how convenient!) had a significantly greater number of concussions and recurrent concussions than other retired sportsmen who competed at a high level in other sports, ranging from golf to basketball (Decq et al., 2015). These rugby players also had a significantly higher level of depression and mild cognitive disorders than other retired sportsmen, which I found to be very interesting (Decq et al., 2015). These were surprising findings, but I just wished there was a study done that actually showed MRI images of the brains of these athletes as opposed to self reporting, which could have bias. Overall, however, there is sufficient evidence to show that recurrent concussions in rugby have an effect on brains much like American football. I’m sure glad I wasn’t playing!
Sources:
Casson, I. R., Viano, D. C., Haacke, E. M., Kou, Z., & LeStrange, D. G. (2014). Is There Chronic Brain Damage in Retired NFL Players? Neuroradiology, Neuropsychology, and Neurology Examinations of 45 Retired Players. Sports Health, 6(5), 384–395. https://doi.org/10.1177/1941738114540270
Decq, P., Gault, N., Blandeau, M., Kerdraon, T., Berkal, M., ElHelou, A., … Peyrin, J.-C. (2016). Long-term consequences of recurrent sports concussion. Acta Neurochirurgica, 158(2), 289–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-015-2681-4