World Rugby have been told to issue strict punishments for teams who fail to reduce the amount of contact training they do as part of radical new proposals to cut down on concussions.
Other proposals put forward in order to improve the game's safety include a radical shake-up that would see only injured players replaced and the number of players' matches per season reduced to a maximum of 25 per season. Brain injury campaign group Progressive Rugby, comprised of clinical experts, coaches, academics and ex-players including Alix Popham and James Haskell, are the group who have issued such recommendations to the world governing body.
They also include fines and points deductions to be issued against countries and clubs for non-compliance with return-to-play protocols.
And as part of their bid to compel the sport's governing body to “hit the reset button right now”, Progressive Rugby have called for the following measures to be brought into the game:
- Minimum 21-day non-negotiable blanket stand down after a brain injury, irrespective of elite player’s concussion history
- Failure of in-game head injury assessment to trigger minimum 21-day break
- A strict limit of weekly ‘bone on bone’ (no pads) contact training of 15 minutes
- Players' matches reduced by 20 per cent to 25 games maximum a season
- Points deductions and fines for clubs and countries who fail to enforce the regulations
- A radical shake-up of the replacements law, with substitutes only for injured players. This is to eliminate collisions between fatigued and fresh players
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Minimum eight-week protected annual rest - made up of at least two weeks during the season, five weeks in the close season and an additional one week to be used at any time
Read more: What the players will have to prove when rugby's day of reckoning comes
The lobby group added World Rugby should complement those changes with other measures. These include the establishment of a global calendar, mandatory annual brain injury education and brain injury health passports.
They are also calling for maximum tackle height at nipple line, plus further investigation of law changes around rucks and the tackle area to protect against exposure to impacts to the head and neck area. They also want the end of the controversial 20-minute red card, which SANZAAR continue to trial, to provide a consistent deterrent.
The lobby group's call for change follows the news that 185 former players have issued legal proceedings against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Union. As reported by WalesOnline, around 50 of those former Welsh professional players.
The Telegraph report that World Rugby are understood to have disagreed with Progressive Rugby over some of the points when the two have spoken in the past, with the proposals to reduce the number of replacements in matches and introduce a 21-day mandatory stand-down period not being supported. However, other recommendations - such as limiting contact training - are said to have been agreed upon.
However WalesOnline understands that World Rugby have ceased any form of communication with the lobby group due to their links to the ongoing legal case against the governing bodies. Speaking about the proposed changes, Progressive Rugby’s Professor John Fairclough said: “Elite rugby has to hit the reset button right now because these are the players in the shop window of this great sport.
“There is now no other option but to drastically reduce the number of impacts a player receives over their career and take extreme caution with the management of players who do suffer brain injuries.
“We are talking about the brain, the most crucial but vulnerable organ we have.
“So that means it’s non-negotiable that we err on the side of caution. If evidence then comes to light that allows that cautious stance to be revisited that’s fine. It has to be the right way to do it.
“The elite game has changed beyond recognition since professionalism and is no longer the contact sport that many of us grew up watching from the stands.
“A focus on producing increasingly powerful, fitter, faster and dynamic athletes, has resulted in collisions of extraordinary magnitude. In the elite game players no longer seem coached to evade the opposition but rather to physically dominate them by running into and over them.
“But sadly, while elite players’ bodies have transformed to better dish out and withstand these colossal impacts, their brains have remained just as vulnerable as ever.”
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