Interesting. Suppose there natural response is to shut down so makes sense. Wonder is there adverse effects to keeping them awake?
Rugby league seems to have even harder hits from what I can see, because you just need to stop the lad they donāt even have to wrap their arms around just poleaxe them with a body check
Itās also glorified. Hereās their own youtube channel celebrating ābig hitsā
They also donāt tend to pass.more than one out for the first 3 tackles in a set. So 2-3 lads can pour in knowing he aināt doing anything but running straight.
They are better tacklers tho. Played a bit in Australia and you could always tell the lads that came from a league background, machines at tackling, absolutely.murder you.
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It does unfortunately. Rob Burrows is very ill.
I know Burrows, Van Der Westhuizen and Weir all have/had MND but would that condition be linked to head trauma playing rugby? Out of all the conditions to get I would think that one would be your worst nightmare.
Agreed. Youād wonder, well, I wonder at least.
Neil Francis says that playing rugby is comparable to removing asbestos for a living, or smoking 100 cigarettes a day or working in a coalmine. I will never let my imaginary children play this sport.
He says itās all Steve Thompsonās own fault Heās also a legal expert who expects Steve Thompsonās case to fail. He compares the situation to trying to sue a cigarette company who have warning signs on their boxes. And he says the sport is unwatchable.
This is the most remarkable thing Iāve read in a long time.
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Do they play much rubby in the favelas in Rio?
Neil is an ape
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The concussion confessions from some posters here explains a lot.
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Any chance of a copy and paste?
Be careful you donāt give yourself one under the bed during herr Holohans Christmas address
Rugby is dangerous and violent - players must retire if they donāt feel safe
While I sympathise with Thompson, I donāt expect him to win the legal battle
Steve Thompson is tackled by Shaun Perry of Worcester Warriors during a Premiership match for Wasps in October 2011 ā he retired from the game for a second time just over two months later. Photo: Getty Images
December 10 2020 02:30 AM
In the '80s, I ended up in Boston working on a J1 visa. We found it difficult to get jobs from the off but eventually we got a number of calls about available positions.
Some guy called Bob rang and told us to show up on Monday morning at 7am and we could start straight away. I had to ask which particular firm this guy represented.
It was an asbestos removal firm and the rate would be $16 per hour - which for a penniless college student was an absolute fortune. What did we have to do? Turn up, collect our protective gear and sign the waiver.
The fact that Iām telling you this story now means that we did not take the job as I probably would have died 10 years ago from some awful lung ailment or lung cancer.
If you work in a coal mine, there is a good chance you are going to die a pretty bad death. If you smoke 100 fags a day, same the thing is going to happen. If you play in one of the most violent contact sports in the world and nothing surer than there are going to be physical, emotional and mental consequences when you finish.
The day that was foretold has arrived, the class action has been drawn up for nearly 100 dementia-addled former players and the lawyers are licking their lips. It isnāt going to be that simple.
The Steve Thompson story is big news and while I am somewhat sympathetic, this episode was a self-fulfilling prophecy and I am surprised it has not happened sooner than 25 years after the game turned professional.
Concussion is a professional rugby union problem. The first point of order as far as I am concerned is clear. If you are a professional rugby player and you feel that the physical and mental risks are too much for you, then retire.
Donāt even think about it - retire now. Every cigarette pack for a long time has had a clear health warning on it. If you smoke, the likelihood is that you will acquire a deadly disease which will put a premature end to your life. Yet smokers still try to sue cigarette companies.
If you play rugby union, which is a high-impact, violent game, then the likelihood is that you will pick up significant injuries - some of which may impact your current or future life.
Everybody playing the game now has been educated on the risks and is fully aware, as far as I am concerned, of the consequences of their participation.
The three high-profile players who are suffering from early onset dementia - Steve Thompson, Alix Popham and Michael Lipman - all played the game in an uncompromising fashion, they gave 100pc in their physical commitment and it is no surprise to me that any of them are suffering the consequences of continuous and consistent head impact and concussions.
I suspect that the list of near 100 players could in fact be a list of the usual suspects - the guys who donāt back down or shirk their physical responsibilities or simply carry on when it is irresponsible to do so.
Specific
Let us take the specific example of Thompson. He was a huge, physical specimen who did not hold back and he gave and took punishment in equal measure and as a consequence picked up a number of concussions during his career. In April 2007 he retired from a serious neck injury with immediate effect from the game after having a spectacularly successful career, including a World Cup victory in 2003.
However, in October 2007, while working as a coach for Brive, he decided that he was fit enough to play the game again and returned the Ā£500,000 insurance pay-out to the insurance company and played for Brive for three seasons.
He then returned to the Premiership where as a Wasps player in December 2011 he again retired immediately after medical advice when his neck injury resurfaced. Thompson had significant symptoms of numbness and dizziness and his doctor advised him to quit immediately. Ask anyone who has suffered a serious neck injury and they will tell you the symptoms which are wide-ranging and not dissimilar to those of concussions.
It is significant that in the press releases issued by the lawyers taking on this case that they have not mentioned that after being advised not to play any more Thompson disregarded that strong medical advice and went on to play for another five years.
In my mind it was highly irresponsible of him to go back playing, considering the potential risks. Letās see how that one pans out in court.
This column has consistently been adversarial towards World Rugby on a number of issues but they did their homework and preparation and were swift in their response on a matter that they knew was coming down the tracks from a long time ago.
āWorld Rugby takes player safety very seriously and implements injury prevention strategies based on the latest available research and evidence.ā
They are partners in the Zurich Concussion Consensus and indeed I interviewed their chief medical officer, Martin Raftery, in Berlin at a world sports concussion seminar in which they were a lead player.
They knew this was coming and they have looked across the water and seen what has happened with their confreres in the NFL, and they have been diligent and careful with every action, directive and press release in relation to injury, player welfare and - most importantly - concussion.
They have issued protocols and directives and have been heavily engaged in education at all levels in all spheres regarding concussion.
They will have a team of high-powered lawyers to defend all accusations made against them and I wish the plaintiffs the best of luck in this regard.
I do not see a pot of gold nor any of the 15 ācommandmentsā being implemented when all of this comes to an end.
The game has become unwatchable over the last couple of years and where World Rugby might be guilty is in letting the sport become too physical where skill and the movement of the ball and the concept of speed of thought or action beating the man are subservient to contact and the quest for physical domination.
In the last couple of years you have seen the scenario where you have a continuation of one-out runners being met by two tacklers, usually one high and one low. To counter this the team in possession sends a pod of three players - the ball-carrier being latched on either side by two support players who literally push him further over the gain line. Once the ball is recycled it continues again.
This version of the game is just madness. In a typical series of say 10 to 12 phases it is a miracle that there is not a concussion in at least one of those phases if you consider what they are actually trying to do to each other.
Solutions
The solutions are simple - there can only be one tackler and that tackler must tackle at waist height. The ball-carrier can have no players latching on to support him in his quest to get across the gain line.
Every other part of the game is either relatively safe or there is new emphasis on safety.
Where it is true that World Rugby have intervened they may not have intervened enough. The propensity for World Rugby to make these changes after the litigation has been launched is zero. How could you be legally advised to make those changes after a class action has been served.
I suspect that the only party who will make any money out of this are, as usual, the lawyers and I would also suspect that the litigation will be a very hard-fought affair with none of the players suffering from these neurological issues being compensated to any great degree irrespective of whether World Rugby is found to be at fault or not for their current situation.
Rugby union is a dangerous and violent game - if any player out there feels that it is too dangerous and too violent, which may have consequences in later life - my advice is retire from this sport immediately.
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Neil Francis is making me rethink all my life decisions here.
Thanks mate.
Neil Francis is clearly an even bigger cunt than I thought.
Heās a toady lickspittle smug fuck
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The day that was foretold has arrived, the class action has been drawn up for nearly 100 dementia-addled former players and the lawyers are licking their lips. It isnāt going to be that simple.
What a cunt
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Nearly every single paragraph in that article isā¦ just exceptional.
When heās talking about asbestos and cigarette companies and coalmines - does he not realise that all of those industries ended up paying millions upon millions in settlements? The asbestos industry went completely bankrupt through settlements. Then he talks about his waiver for the asbestos job - where was Steve Thompsonās waiver? Heās surprised thereās not a concussion every 12 phases of play. When he talks about Steve Thompson coming back after injury, why did they let him do that? Why wasnāt he denied a license like an injured boxer? The warning labels on cigarette boxes - where were the warnings for rugby players?
Neil would make a great lawyer. Best thing Iāve read in an Irish paper in a long time.
You can just imagine the lads in the IRFU slamming their heads off their desks when they read that this morning.
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What does Franno work at?
I had to check his wikipedia this morning because the way he was going on, I thought he was one of the top lawyers in the country. I think heās just a journalist.
No market for rugby journalists if no rugby.
Franco is scared.