On June 2nd, we had the privilege of attending a professional rugby match. The teams playing were Montpellier and Upstarts Castres and was held at the Stade de France. This was my first rugby match and it was quite the experience. I had never realized how prominent rugby was in Europe. When people said that rugby was Europe’s version of football, I thought it was an overstatement, but I was wrong. The stands were packed wild fans, passionately cheering for their respective teams. It was difficult to not get swept up in all of the craziness. I knew rugby was dangerous but I never realized how dangerous it was until 15 minutes into the game when medics were rushed to the field to attend to a player who got hit.
Dr. Easterling had told us to keep our eyes on a player and keep track of how many times they underwent an impact that could’ve resulted in a concussion. Our class averaged this data and found a mean of 12 impacts potentially resulting in a concussion per player. According to a study done by Decq et al. (2015), the mean number of impacts per player per game potentially resulting in a concussion was 95. Both of these numbers represent a high probability for rugby players to undergo a concussion.
According to Decq et al. (2015), there is an abundance of long-term consequences that can result from a concussion. The severity of depressive disorder increased when the number of recurrent concussions experienced increased. Also, not surprisingly, the severity of headache increased when the number of recurrent concussions experienced increased. Most studies on high-impact sports are done on football players; however, this study observed rugby players which were found to experience more recurrent concussions. The consequences of recurrent concussions need to be discussed more often so people joining high-contact sports can be cognizant of the possible dangers. This is not only important for adult players but also for youth joining these kinds of sports. Their brains are less developed and thus concussions will be more detrimental to their health.
Overall, I thought the rugby game was an incredible experience and I loved being able to relate what we were learning in class to this experience.
References:
Decq, P., Gault, N., Blandeau, M., Kerdraon, T., Berkal, M., & ElHelou, A. et al. (2015). Long-term consequences of recurrent sports concussion. Acta Neurochirurgica, 158(2), 289-300. doi: 10.1007/s00701-015-2681-4