So many injuries in our game of late,can anyone think of anything to reduce it?


Even if they had to wear full body paddings so what.I know your gunna say our game is not the NFL, but hey anything to keep players on the field longer due to protecting the body I'm all for it..


Our game must be the only game in the World with the most worst injuries.It really is a gladiator sport that is RL!

Two days prior to the game a 19 man squad is announced.
At present two are dropped and 17 played.
Perhaps it would help if all 19 were available.
That would be 12 subs from 19 players rather than 17 as now.
It may prevent players being sent back out when injured just to keep 13 on the field.
That makes injuries worse than they originally were.

More padding can be counter productive. Just imagine what the sport would be like if players were padded up like American footballers - it would be carnage, with full speed hits being delivered with hardened helmets and shoulder pads.

Go home

I would say that more injuries are from twisting and turning and poor technique rather than the actual collision, so extra padding wouldn't change anything.

Rugby League is a physical, contact sport, injuries are to be expected.

Is there any data on the causes of the injuries being made?

Without knowing the specifics as to what causes the most injuries, we can't really know what would be best to change. Otherwise we get stuck in arguments such as the impact vs tiredness arguments with subs; big/late hits or pressures on joints etc, without any real evidence either way.

I agree that it is in the nature of RL to have injuries, however it is a duty to ensure the maximum protection of players without drastically altering the nature.

The extra padding is causing MORE injuries in the NFL, specifically concussions which is a major problem in the NFL at the minute.

Reducing the number of games would be the best way to reduce injuries, 27 league games + cup + playoffs is too much imo.

League weekly puts a suggestion in somewhere this week about reducing the 10 metres defenders retreat to 5 metres. Meaning less of a run up for the big hits, therefore less impact injuries.

It seems to be players getting knee and ankle injuries though, would these be caused by impact injuries? you'd think they'd be more upper body really like dislocated shoulders. I know when I've knackered my knee up in the past it was because I twisted funny, and my ankle injuries only ever happen when I go over on it at an awkward angle.

Short of wrapping all the players in cotton wool and banning any form of contact I don't think we can reasonably expect to reduce injuries in what is a full contact sport.

Banning Wigan would probably cut about 93.45% of the injuries in Super League.

As has been said it's not high impact that is particularly causing the injuries it's the twisting and wrestling in the tackle that's the problem. A combined push from the RFL and coaches to reduce the amount of wrestling and pressure put on attackers joints alongside a quicker held call from refs and a reduction in the amount of interchanges I think would be the best way forward.

I don't know if there are actually more injuries than previously or if because the squads are smaller we are noticing them more?

Also if there are more is it due to the game being a summer game and playing on harder, unforgiving grounds that studs have little or no penetration against? Hull City Council remover Rugby Posts through the summer months due to the grounds being too hard for the game to be played and they see this as a risk. Maybe they are right and the summer move has been a bad decision for players health?

Other changes in the game which may contribute to more injuries is the interchange rules. Players are going from being warm and supple to sitting on a bench allowing their muscles to cool and then being thrust back in to a fast paced game with little or no warm up. When you think a player does around 20-30 minutes pre-match warm up but muscles do not stay warm for long. This too must have some effect when previously players were expected to play 80 minutes with only one or two substitutes and once you were off you could cool down and allow your muscles to relax, thus reducing risk of injury.

The other thing that has already been mentioned are the wrestling tactics. The ways players are keeping players held up, dropped to the floor and then using levers to force the attackers on to their back to slow the ptb down are certainly seeing the sport having more shoulder and neck problems.

Impact as stated has little effect on a player getting injured, there are the occasional concussions but this could happen when clashing heads with a member of your own team so I don't think it is something the sport needs to worry too much about.

The answer is not a simple one. We can't go back to winter rugby for obvious reasons, it would be difficult the way the game is now played to go back to substitutions instead of interchanges although giving a team 5 or 6 subs rather than 10-12 interchanges would maybe allow for more youngsters to come through and reduce the amount of muscular injuries? And other than making head guards compulsory I can't see any other way the RFL could reduce concussion injuries.

I think a big one though would be increasing squad sizes to around 30 and with that increasing the salary cap to accomodate those extra 5 players. (Are there 70 extra players of SL quality to go around??).

I agree with the reduction of subs. Make it 6, people are on longer and get more tired, reduces the impact, and incrfeases the impact of smaller faster players along with 60 minute work horses.

Agreed, that if reduction in injury is what you want, slowing the game down by reducing subs is the most common sense way of doing it. I still don't think it should happen though.