Passing the test
PLAYERS AT Gallagher Premiership and Greene King IPA Championship clubs are now required to pass online modules about the game’s major welfare issues. Coaches and support staff in the English elite game must also take part.
The online courses consist of a short animated, educational video on the subject – concussion, for example – followed by five multiple choice questions. By mid-October, 1,916 personnel had completed the process.
Previously, players had been educated about issues like anti-doping, anti-corruption and concussion through an array of forums, but last year it was agreed the “piecemeal” set-up was not cutting it.
So the Professional Game Board agreed on a roll-out of up-to-date education modules by the Personal Development Group in January 2017, with everything centrally monitored.
In the first year of a four-year plan, modules were conducted
face-to-face, club-by-club with seminars. In this, the second year, they have gone down the online route – and they will decide how to proceed next year following a review of this process.
According to Corin Palmer, Premiership Rugby’s head of elite performance and player development: “The biggest success was the collaboration that existed with this particular group. It was genuinely welfare-focused. It has been incredibly positive.”