Rugby Union and Neurological Damage
This is all very centred on rugby union in the UK, but will have repercussions in all rugby-playing countries. Neurologists have determined a link between early dementia and professional rugby playing. It's been known for a long time that boxing is not good for boxers' brains, but doctors have found that repeated knocks to the head, (without necessarily becoming unconscious), while playing rugby, also causes severe and untreatable neurological damage.
I'm just putting these here for rugby fans and players to comment on. Rugby is rugby, and I am a rugby fan, but when you read the interview (below) with England's Steve Thompson, it makes you wonder if rugby's time has come ? Or should the players just man-up ? Or play less ?

Steve won the World Cup with the English team in 2003, but now at the age of 42, he has problems remembering his wife's name:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/ ... ial-report

Rugby union's dark news on dementia presents a reality the sport has dared not face
Rugby union and dementia – a special report
Analysis: there is a clear link between rugby and dementia, and the key event appears to be the leap to professionalism in the 1990s

Michael Aylwin
Tue 8 Dec 2020 14.00 GMT
Last modified on Tue 8 Dec 2020 14.01 GMT

At the last count, in 2014, there were 1,339 people in the UK between the ages of 30 and 44 who had been diagnosed with dementia – or 0.0001% of the 13 million in that age group, or one in every 9,500. The startling news that 11 former professional rugby players from that demographic have been diagnosed with the condition presents rugby with a reality it has dared not face until now.

Even if the 11 (eight of whom are joining a new legal action) turn out to be the only ones, which is next to inconceivable given we know of another 90 with likely symptoms – and this before those players had gone public, this before some have even reached middle age – they represent nearly 1% of the roughly 1,500 players from that age group who played professionally in England and Wales in the 15 years after rugby union went open. Assuming the incidence rate derived from the 2014 Dementia UK report has remained constant, the chances of that same wider population of 13m returning 10 or more cases from a sample of 1,500 are a shade under one in 10 trillion. For 11 or more, the chances are so small that a regular spreadsheet cannot cope and defaults to a probability of zero.

In other words, this is not a coincidence, and it is rugby’s problem. No amount of smooth-talking from the sport’s authorities, or platitudes about the need for further research, can controvert what is in plain sight. There is a link between rugby and degenerative neurological disorders. At this point, it must also be asserted that this association is probably with professional rugby, but there is likely to be a sliding scale, which could reach down into the ever-more punishing community game too.

It seems the key event is the sudden leap to full-time professionalism of elite rugby union in the mid-1990s. A generation of players, now barely at middle age, thus became the first to play an entire career full-time. In so doing, they assumed a toll of physical attrition unlike that of any previous.
More here.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/ ... d-not-face

how are they measuring dementia?
are they sure it's caused by the sport

or just endemic in players

the condition is called CTE(Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) or Dementia Pugalistica, or what used to be called being "Punch Drunk" im not sure why this is new news as its been known for a long while that this condition is well known in sports like boxing, american football and rugby, and something im very familiar with,
it is not just dementia, it also causes depression, mood swings, problems with thinking and memory, slurred speech, problems with balance, suicidal thoughts, the dementia side is usually in the final stages of the disease

Hey JL,
I hoped you would weigh in. (And welcome back )
Yeah, it's news now because eight professional ex-players from the UK are suing the rugby union authorities for compensation. Tbf, it's not only about the money - they want to change the rules to make it safer for players.

The eight former players, who are all under the age of 45, are proposing to bring legal proceedings against World Rugby – the game’s governing body – the Rugby Football Union in England and the Welsh Rugby Union over what they claim is their failure to protect them from the risks caused by concussions.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/ ... legal-case

I guess boxers must know they are risking brain damage, and you say this is well known, but some of these rugby players don't seem to have had any idea.

Its also an issue in football (soccer for those from the US). A number of players from England's World cup winning side have suffered from it.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... gland-1966

Ray Price, hardest brave fool who ever got into a rugby league head clash every week of his career..

He did admit that a recent scan showed bruising on his brain.
"Oh, there was a little bit of bruising on the brain, but i still train really hard and look after myself" he said.
"But It didn't help my family any, they still think that I have dementia".

Takeaway?
Protect brave fools from themselves and adjust the rules of the game? or just let 'em rip...

I wrote on another thread yesterday "Bring back the biff" (don't make penalties for the occasional punch-up so severe) but that is not the systemic brain-injury that used to be built-in to both Union and League.
Thank God that is starting to change. The toll on great men is now proven to be real and widespread.

Can I take make prosecution if I played for the under 15s?

Jerry Atrick wrote: ↑Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:51 am

Not a chance.





Rugby Union, on the other hand, doesn't have hits or tackles above the shoulders, nor do they head the ball. In the scrum they don't butt heads either.

Have you actually played the game because as my memory as a forward most of the game was spent with your spine and face parallel with the pitch. Your head would often get hit with knees or trampled on or other bony parts the body colliding with it.
Maybe you must have been a back?

flea wrote: ↑Wed Dec 09, 2020 11:50 am

Jerry Atrick wrote: ↑Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:51 am

Not a chance.





Rugby Union, on the other hand, doesn't have hits or tackles above the shoulders, nor do they head the ball. In the scrum they don't butt heads either.

Have you actually played the game because as my memory as a forward most of the game was spent with your spine and face parallel with the pitch. Your head would often get hit with knees or trampled on or other bony parts the body colliding with it.
Maybe you must have been a back?

hahah i was going to say this also, i played rugby for 5 years, and was winger/full back, and took hundreds of heavy knocks,
if rugby players dont take knocks to the head why to half the players have cauliflower ears? it really does baffle me when people say stuff like that, the tackles in NFL are not much different to that of Rugby and if you dont think a bare shoulder to the chest/neck doesnt hurt then fuck me, players in Rugby and NFL dont get concussions from the direct hits to the head, its from the whiplash from tackles which cause the brain to hit the inside of the skull and bruise