Friday’s rugby news has reinforcements for the Tahs, the most dangerous positions revealed, an easy win for the Rebels and more concussion research.
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Big names back for Tahs
Israel Folau and Bernard Foley will take the field for the first time since last year’s World Cup as NSW Waratahs. Like the Waratahs’ previous two trials, coach Daryl Gibson has chopped and changed his starting XV for a final pre-season hit-out against the Highlanders, making it clear he would rather experiment than focus on having a concrete structure.
Foley will come off the bench, with Gibson unsure if the Wallaby 10 will have enough time with the team to take back the position for the start of the Super Rugby season. “Putting Foley straight in after a week, there’s risks associated to that,” Gibson said. “In terms of KB (Beale), I’ve been really happy and impressed with his play there.”
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Rebels defeat Somoa
Melbourne Super Rugby franchise the Rebels have completed their Super Rugby pre-season with an 85-0 warm up match against Samoa at AAMI Park. A full strength Rebels side ran in eleven unanswered tries ahead of their Super Rugby opening match against the Force.
“It was a fantastic hit out for us,” Rebels Head Coach Tony McGahan said despite the uneven scoreline. “It was the first time that a lot of our players have played minutes this year, great to get some combinations and great to get on the paddock for a good 15 v 15 with a lot of our key players playing.”
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Injury-prone positions revealed
A three year study of the Top 14 has revealed that props, hookers and scrum halves accounted for a remarkable 43 per cent of all permanent replacements made during games due to injury. Overall, hooker was viewed as the most dangerous position, suffering the most blood, neck and knee injuries.
Among all playing levels, a previous ARU/World Rugby study found that the shoulder was the part of the body most at risk (17.5 per cent of injuries), ahead of the knee (14.1), thigh (13.9) and head, neck and face (12.9). Nearly half of all injuries were sustained in tackles (46.6 per cent) and the player being tackled accounted for nearly a third of them.
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Concussions pushing retirement
A greater number of rugby players are being urged to retire as rugby medical advisers are gaining an understanding of the long-term dangers of concussion. “We have moved on with our knowledge and we’re more ready to advise players to retire,” World Rugby medical adviser Dr Barry O’Driscoll said.
“It does seem that with the much bigger impacts and speed of the game that these repeated sub-concussive and concussive knocks are becoming more damaging more frequently.” O’Driscoll added that any player who has sustained three or four concussion should “seriously think about the future.”
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