Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the incidence, severity, and burden of injury in starting and replacement players from professional men’s teams of five rugby unions. Methods: Match injuries of greater than 24 h time-loss (including data on the severity, match quarter, event, body region) and player minutes of match exposure data were collated for all starting and replacement players in the men’s English Premiership, Welsh Pro14 (both 2016/17–2018/19 seasons), and Australian, New Zealand, and South African Super Rugby (all 2016–2018 seasons) teams. Injury incidences and mean injury burden (incidence × days missed) were calculated, and rate ratios (RRs) (95% confidence intervals [CIs]) were used to compare injury incidence and burden between starting (reference group) and replacement players. Results: Overall injury incidence was not different between starters and replacements for all injuries (RR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.88–1.10), nor for concussions (RR = 0.85; 95% CI 0.66–1.11). Mean injury burden was higher for replacement players (RR = 1.31, 95% CI 1.17–1.46). Replacement injury incidence was lower than the starters in the third (RR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.51–0.92) and fourth (RR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.67–0.92) match quarters. Injury incidence was not different between starters and replacements for any match event or body region, but compared with starters, replacements’ injury burden was higher in lower limbs (RR = 1.24, 95% CI 1.05–1.46) and in the tackled player (RR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.01–1.66). Conclusion: This study demonstrated a lower injury incidence in replacement players compared with starters in the second half of matches, with a higher injury burden for replacement players due to higher mean injury severity.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2157-2167 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Sports Medicine |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| Early online date | 12 Apr 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Aug 2024 |
Bibliographical note
The authors would like to acknowledge the work of the medical staff working with the teams in reporting the injury data which contributed to this study. They would also like to acknowledge the players from these teams who provided their consent for their injury data to be used.Data Availability Statement
The data used for this study are not publicly available. Data sharing agreements, between contributing countries and the lead author’s institution, allowed the collation of anonymous data but did not extend to making this publicly available given restrictions from individual country governing bodies.Funding
KAS and SK are employed by the Rugby Football Union, the national governing body for rugby union in England. KAS received funding for this work from World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, and Premiership Rugby and has previously received funding for other projects from the Rugby Players Association and the RFU Injured Players Foundation. KQ is employed by New Zealand Rugby and is on the World Rugby Scientific Committee. He has travelled to World Rugby meetings and been provided with accommodation at their expense for meetings and conferences. WM is contracted by Rugby Australia as Chief Medical Officer. LF is on the editorial board at Sports Medicine. ERdC is supported by a PhD scholarship at ECU (awarded to LF by Rugby Australia). CR is employed by the South Africa Rugby Union. ISM receives funding from the Welsh Rugby Union. PM is employed by the Welsh Rugby union. CLB was funded by the Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS 2), which is a pan-Wales higher level skills initiative led by Bangor University on behalf of the Higher Education sector in Wales. It is part funded by the Welsh Government\u2019s European Social Fund (ESF) convergence programme for West Wales and the Valleys. NS (University of Pretoria) received payment for the preparation of the data for this study. RT and EF are employed by World Rugby, which provided funding for this study. MC is in paid employment with Premiership Rugby Limited and was previously employed by the Rugby Football Union. SW has previously received research funding from World Rugby and the Rugby Football Union. SWW has received ongoing grant funding from World Rugby for a different research project. SPR has no conflicts of interest to declare. This study was funded by a grant awarded by World Rugby.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Rugby Football Union | |
| Welsh Rugby Union | |
| European Social Fund Plus | |
| Rugby Players Association | |
| World Rugby | |
| Welsh Government’s European Social Fund | |
| RFU Injured Players Foundation |