Rugby’s concussion tests are ‘laughable’ claims England star
Corbisiero breaks ranks over the game’s biggest injury worry as MP calls for a Parliamentary inquiry
ENGLAND and Lions rugby star Alex Corbisiero has labelled the game’s concussion protocols ‘laughable’ and demanded guaranteed rest periods and a reduction in fullcontact training in a bid to limit the risk of players developing brain damage.
While leading Labour MP Chris Bryant called for a Parliamentary inquiry into concussion in sport, Corbisiero became the first current international to voice serious concerns over the way rugby treats concussion.
Serving players, fearful of upsetting their paymasters, have so far been reluctant to speak out. But Corbisiero, ruled out of the Six Nations championship by a serious knee injury, criticised rugby’s concussion policies at a film premiere in central London.
The film, Head Games, directed by acclaimed US documentary maker Steve James, highlights the decades of denial in American Football which led to the NFL being ordered to pay out $765million (£460m) to former players who suffered serious mental health problems linked to concussion.
It also covers the case of rugby league player Barry Taylor, who died after suffering Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative neurological disease associated with repeated concussions.
Addressing a panel of renowned neurological experts, Corbisiero made an impassioned plea for more to be done to improve standards in a sport that has seen a dramatic increase in the size and power of players since the onset of professionalism in 1995.
Corbisiero, 25 and a keen American Football fan, said: ‘As a player, you feel like you have very little say or control over how you can actually change the game. In rugby, we play 30-plus games a year. We do contact all through the week in training and then take minimal time off in the summer before we are back into contact training and the season.
‘Our concussion protocols can be laughable at times. Cogsport [the computerised test used to assess an injured player’s fitness to resume rugby] is the last hurdle people need to go through, but you can pass that concussed or not concussed. I don’t think it’s an acceptable guideline.
‘I don’t think there is a single rugby player who hasn’t had concussion or a sub-concussive blow.’
Corbisiero’s stand led to sustained applause at Tuesday’s film premiere. Afterwards Bryant, the Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform, called for a Parliamentary inquiry into the way sport deals with concussion.
Earlier that day, Bryant chaired a meeting, alongside Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, at Parliament to discuss the issue. The gathering was attended by senior medics from governing bodies, including the Rugby Football Union and the Football Association.
In 2009, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was ordered before Congress to answer questions about American Football’s approach to concussion. It was a defining moment for the sport. Bryant, the MP for Rhondda in South Wales and a fervent rugby fan, believes similar questions must be asked here.
‘I represent a Welsh seat and in my constituency every young lad plays rugby,’ said Bryant. ‘For many of them it’s the only way out of very deprived backgrounds, becoming a star. In those kinds of communities it’s so important to get education down to that level.
‘We’re going to get a cross-party group to produce a report. But I’d much prefer to see a formal inquiry by Parliament done along the lines of the congressional hearing in the States because that’s when you get all the evidence rolled out.’
Several retired players, including former England captain Lewis Moody and ex-Scotland international Rory Lamont, have called for greater concussion education and stricter policing of head injuries across the game.
The Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) want strict limits on the amount of contact sessions players undertake between matches in order to lessen their exposure to concussion. They also want guaranteed rest periods for players between seasons. But those moves are being resisted, with one source saying: ‘Clubs are reluctant to be told what to do.’
With figures released last week to The Mail on Sunday — disputed by both the RFU and Premier Rugby — showing an 80 per cent increase in injury-enforced retirements, it is increasingly clear that more needs to be done to protect players in a sport described by RPA chief executive Damian Hopley as ‘beautifully brutal’.
‘It’s really important to speak to people at the coalface who are experiencing these injuries day in, day out,’ said Dr Willie Stewart, one of the world’s leading experts in neuropathology, who is advising the International Rugby Board on their concussion protocols.
‘One thing that is coming through is the issue of contact training. Is that really necessary day in, day out, when the game is on at the weekend?’
Last week, Gloucester fly-half Tim Taylor, 30, became the 20th professional player this season in England to retire injured, while another player, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was released under a controversial rule permitting clubs to dissolve contracts if a player is injured for more than 26 weeks in any 52-week period.