Rugby needs to follow AFL path in confronting problem of concussion | Andy Bull


Australian Rules Football is proposing a trust for players suffering brain trauma and rugby could learn from this

A fortnight or so ago I had an email conversation with a man who used to work as a development officer for the Rugby Football Union. We were talking about the opening round of the Six Nations, about concussion, chronic traumatic encephalopathy and what he called the “cognitive dissonance” involved in enjoying the physicality of the game while also recognising the damage it can do to the players. And then we got around to an interview I’d just done with Peter Robinson, whose boy, Ben, died of second impact syndrome while he was playing a school game in Northern Ireland in 2011. He remembered Ben’s story well, because he was working at the RFU at the time.

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