‘Rugby brain’ worry for dads of young stars
New study highlights dangers of the game, but SA Rugby demurs
● Sivuyile Mangxamba dreams that one day his sons will play for the Springboks.
Amilcar, 17, already plays club rugby and next year his Pretoria father plans to enrol six-year-old Bathwa in a sports academy to accelerate his development in the sport.
“I love the sport and its emphasis on performance. I grew up playing it … up to university level,” said Mangxamba. “I encourage my kids to play it because I want them to experience the game just like I did — and hopefully do much better than I did.”
But the risk of head injuries has Mangxamba worried, and he said the recent retirement of former Springbok flyhalf Pat Lambie after nearly three years of battling with the effects of concussions had accentuated his fears.
The publication of a study showing South African club rugby players have reduced levels of cognitive functioning due to repeated concussions has provided even more cause for concern. A team from Rhodes University investigated whether long-term participation in rugby affected players’ cognitive function, compared to peers who did not play contact sports.
Using a computerised neuropsychological test, players in their early 20s had their memory, motor speed and reaction time tested before, during and after the rugby season. The results were compared with those of 22 runners, cyclists and cricketers.
The study, published in the South African Journal of Psychology last month, found rugby players’ results were consistently poorer.
Study co-author Ann ShuttleworthEdwards, emeritus professor of psychology at Rhodes, said the results confirmed what other research had established: long-term rugby leaves players vulnerable to mild traumatic brain injury, resulting in a decline in the critical cognitive functions required for studying and optimal job functioning.
Another Pretoria father, Tebogo Mphake, a medical doctor with a five-year-old son, said studies like this made him even more reluctant to allow his son to play rugby.
“It is a lovely sport to play and watch, but it’s also a very competitive and aggressive contact sport,” he said.
“It’s almost like a slight encouragement for them to be aggressive as that is associated with performance. I wouldn’t want to put my son through that … it’s too risky.”
SA Rugby spokesperson Andy Colquhoun said the union did not deny the existence of a degenerative brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, but “there currently is no research to show a direct causal link between suffering a concussion or taking hard knocks in rugby union and developing this condition later in life”.
“There are many lifestyle-related factors such as other forms of trauma, alcohol use, drugs and non-trauma-related degeneration that may contribute to such changes in the brain. These are the facts, at the moment,” Colquhoun said.
Shuttleworth-Edwards said the results showed brain injury in rugby players was subtle. But if it was not treated adequately, or players were not allowed sufficient recovery time, the trauma could be progressive.
“In most tests, rugby players were worse off than non-rugby players. The players showed themselves to be cognitively vulnerable, implicating brain injury.”
Shuttleworth-Edwards said she hoped the latest findings would persuade rugby officials to “sit up and listen”. “The best thing that rugby unions and rugby-playing schools can do is to try and make rugby safer by giving players computerised neurocognitive screening tests before the season to accurately monitor any signs of persistent brain trauma,” she said.
“After several concussions it may become apparent from the post-concussion test results that the time has come to advise a player to give up the game, for their own good.”
Mangxamba also said he hoped the rugby fraternity would make sure players were tested often and wore the correct gear. “The rugby unions should take these studies seriously and protect players,” he said.