The Irish Rugby Injury Surveillance (Iris) project recently published its latest injury surveillance report, revealing that a substantial proportion of players from Irish Schools Senior Cup (SCT) rugby teams encountered injuries that necessitated medical care. Initiated in the previous September, the study gathered details on injuries from a total of 212 SCT team matches that took place during one full season throughout Leinster, Munster, and Connacht.
The report indicates that 17% of all SCT injuries, equivalent to more than one out of every six, led to players being rushed to the accident and emergency department for treatment, with two cases needing an ambulance. Additionally, 12% of injuries resulted in a referral to a general practitioner, half were directed to a physiotherapist post-game and 14% caused players to miss at least a day of school.
Through the continual monitoring of such information, the project aims to identify injury trends that can assist the development of evidence-based strategies for injury prevention, with a focus on improving player safety.
Data also showed that for every three fixtures at school level, there were two injuries, and an SCT player would need to play approximately 25 matches before suffering an injury.
Apart from rugby, Iris’s research, conducted by academics at the University of Limerick, covers diverse sports. Its study also examined injuries in amateur men’s and women’s rugby clubs. The gathered data from 508 matches involved 23 All-Ireland League clubs for both genders.
Male players registered an average of one injury per 21 matches, down from the previous average of 17, while female players were injured once every 33 games, compared to a previous frequency of 25. Both genders experienced different common injuries – male players were mostly affected by injuries to the head, shoulder and knees, while female players frequently had knee, ankle and hand or finger injuries. Significant findings noted that injury levels varied based on playing positions, with scrumhalf being the safest position at 4%, whilst openside flankers reported the highest injury victims at 16%, together with loosehead props and locks who accounted for 12% of the injuries.
In the field of SCT, the prevalent injury was found to be concussion, accounting for 22 per cent of all cases, trailed by ankle and shoulder sprains at 11 and 7 per cent respectively. Based on the survey, it was noted that the prevalence of concussion has been fairly consistent in recent times. When examining injuries reported within men’s and women’s AILs, concussions amounted to 12 and 9 per cent respectively.