ANYBODY who has watched a rugby match recently will be aware that tackles are getting more bruising and their cumulative effect on young bodies ever more taxing.
The Welsh coach, Warren Gatland, has expressed fears over his star winger George North, who seems to be targeted for the euphemistic "special treatment" whenever he enters the stage these days. And most of us can recall incidents when crowds have gone quiet as injured players receive treatment.
In which light, it's reassuring - to a large extent - that Scotland has become the first country in the world to introduce standard guidelines for dealing with concussion in sport. After all, it is bad enough when professional luminaries are involved in situations where they don't seem to know where they are. Worse still when it is teenagers who suffer the worst possible consequences from participating in a pastime which they love.
The new guidelines, which were launched at Hampden Park yesterday, carried a special resonance because they were done so by Peter Robinson, whose 14-year-old son Ben died in 2011 after being concussed twice during a rugby match in Northern Ireland.
In the aftermath of that awful tragedy, the authorities have striven to be realistic about what they can and can't do to protect youngsters on the field and the indications yesterday were that they have struck the right note. There's no use pretending that rugby isn't occasionally a dangerous pursuit, nor that participants can often sustain knocks and injuries without even being aware there is a problem at the time. Nobody wants the game to become a permanent touch festival. But the guidelines are clear: if you have any doubts you might have concussion, don't stay involved in the action. Instead, get your condition checked out and be prepared for the possibility of a delayed reaction.
As we approach another Rugby World Cup, where there will be tackles of bone-juddering intensity, it's reassuring that there is now a single, shared set of guidelines for sports concussion management across the whole grassroots and amateur circuit. And, in general, anything which has been devised to make these games safer should be encouraged, lest we experience another career-ending injury such as that contracted by Thom Evans at Cardiff in 2010. But the more problematic aspect of the new guidelines will be the element of enforcement.
After all, rugby of both codes and football remain bastions of testosterone-laced machismo. In the thick of a frenetic contest, how many players are willingly going to admit they "might" be concussed, particularly if it ends up with their departure leading to defeat for their side? There are already protocols in place on the Test stage and even these have provoked controversy in this season's Six Nations Championship. In an ideal world, referees and officials could work with coaches to ensure that nobody took part in physical activity while they were injured. But realistically, and as somebody who used to hear Scotland internationalists talk about how they had performed at the highest level when they were 70% or 75% fit, it will be difficult to police the regulations to the nth degree.
In which light, there might have to be further steps implemented in the future, albeit one or two which might spark furious debate. One, though, strikes me as being permissible and that is for rugby players to wear safety headgear which will prevent them from bearing the brunt of an opposition challenge. You could argue that if it's fine for American Football, padding and helmets should be acceptable in rugby, though I suspect such a suggestion would have many old-timers squirming.
But ultimately, when children's lives are at stake, nothing should be off the table. Yesterday's announcement was a positive stride in the right direction. But there may still have to be further work in the future.
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