Good luck to Lance and hopefully everything goes well for him.

One guy I've worried about is Rob Burrow. He's been knocked out quite a few times and played on. After this they might tighten up the concussion rulings even tighter.

Luke robinson too. Playing at hooker in the middle of the park in their later careers won't have done them any favours either.

Saracens RU had some players wearing impact monitors to assess concussive injuries, but it was part of a study so, results yet to be released.

The problem is - if there is a proven link between rugby (of either code) and brain injury, then how does the game change/adapt to reduce risk?

You cannot remove the risk of contact to the head from any contact sport entirely. You just can't. Kallum Watkins took a knock to the head making a tackle last Friday, it's not just caused by punches or high tackles that are punishable as foul play.

All you can do as a sport is ensure that players long term health is not being put at risk by being exposed to repeated damage over a long period of time, which is why the new concussion protocols are in place.. There really isn't an awful lot else you can do without completely removing the element of contact or collision from the game and making it tag or touch and pass.

What about making the headguards a mandatory part of the kit? Wouldn't like to see it myself but if it stops players from suffering serious injuries then worth considering.

There has to be better care taken of players who receive blows to the head.
We've improved but you still see players who were knocked out either playing on or coming back on.

In the Leeds v Wigan game this year Larne Patrick came back on after initially taken off.
It's not a pop at Wigan btw I've seen it happen at other games on TV too.

To be honest I think we need to look at ways of reducing the power that is put into tackles. Whether it's through fewer interchanges or other changes to the game that would have an affect on players size/power etc.

I don't think interchanges would affect anything, you'd potentially get even more severe injuries, as fatigue worsens technique. Reducing the 10 to 5 again might, but I probably wouldn't watch the pushathon that would cause the game to become.

Travis Burns was another severe head shot that was ignored by the ref and docs. Sam Burgess in the Grand Final another. Both broken facial bones and I'm pretty sure you can't break your cheekbone without impacting the brain.

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Could be something that could drift into RL on the back of this Hohaia announcement.

Messing about with interchanges is far less likely to reduce brain injuries than making sure all players are adequately hydrated.

Dehydration is one of the biggest causative factors in severe brain injury. When the body is starved of fluids the brain shrinks inside the skull cavity. Any blow thereafter causes the brain to smash into the skull like jelly hitting a brick wall at thirty miles an hour.

I think interchanges would affect the power and size of players as they'd have to be more mobile and so reduce the strength and power going into tackles. The only downside is that would having fewer interchanges lead to injured/concussed players staying on the pitch?

I agree on the reffing. Unfortunately the refs are wimping out of making the big decision to send someone off. The Travis Burns one was pathetic. IIRC the ref even gave a penalty but no punishment to the offender. A complete wimping out.

It's not just the offender that is not being dealt with, it's the player with the injury. Should it not be the referee's duty to remove a player from the field when he's clearly injured? Saints medical team in the Burns game weren't even allowed to properly assess him, he shoved them away and shouted at them that he was continuing. Burgess in the GF told his medical team he'd broken his face and they knew the damage was there at half time and ignored it and let him play on. I doubt either players were assess, Burns because he wouldn't allow it, and Burgess because they wanted him to finish the game.