There are two perturbing conclusions in a study by sports scientist Ross Tucker, on injuries suffered by top-level rugby players in terms of frequency and description.
On average, there will be two injuries per player per match and an average of three injuries per player over two Super 14 seasons.
Some other observations Tucker makes are players who are injured in training, on average take longer to recover than those injured in matches; and that injuries in the second half, when the intensity and pace of the game is greater, are more frequent.
A total of 502 professional rugby players were tracked over the course of two seasons, with training and match time, the number of injuries and the severity thereof all documented.
Ross reveals all these results – including how many injuries occur during about 11 000 hours of match time – and how many happen during the nearly 200 000 hours of training.
Ross has been writing a regular column this season with some insight into top-level sport and what is required to make the top players in world rugby tick.
Over the course of a demanding Super 14 season, injury management often makes the difference between a good or great season, says Tucker.
A serious injury to a key player, or a spate of three or four consecutive injuries, will usually turn a season for the worse.
Over the course of two seasons, players accumulated 11 581 hours of match time, and 197 811 hours of training time.
Bear in mind a match makes up a total of 20 hours of player time – 15 players play 80 minutes, and this time is added up to produce the total of 20 hours. Similarly, training time is made up of all the time spent by each player in training.
A total of 1 475 injuries were reported, an average of three injuries per player in just two seasons!
Of course, some players escape the ‘hoodoo’ altogether, while others may pick up five or six injuries in this time.
Not surprisingly, injuries are far more likely to happen during matches than during training. It turns out that an injury will occur once every 10.7 player hours in a match.
Remember that a match consists of 20 total hours, because each player plays an hour and twenty minutes. This means that on average, there will be two injuries per team per match.
The second half of matches requires more running; there is more distance covered; twice as many impacts and less rest than in the first half.
Linked to that is an injury during a match is about 30 percent more likely to occur in the second half than in the first – and this injury will also be more severe, forcing the player to miss an average of 20 days of rugby, compared to 16 for an injury that happens in the first half.
This once again emphasises how vital fitness, conditioning and player management are, since fatigue seems an important contributor to injury risk and severity.
In training, the incidence of injuries is a lot lower – an injury occurs once every 500 hours. To help conceptualise what this means, if a team has a squad of 40 players, and each player spends eight hours per week training, the weekly total training time is 320 hours.
Since an injury occurs once every 500 hours in training, you would predict an injury would occur once every 11 days in training. In the course of a 16-week season, that means you can expect 11 injuries, or more than a quarter of the team to be injured in training!
Clearly, the rate of injuries is high, emphasising how vital good player management is.
The next question might be whether these injuries are serious? It turns out that an injury in training costs a player an average of 23 days away from the game, whereas an injury during a match will force a player to miss about 19 days.
In other words, a training injury is slightly more severe than a match injury, which is a surprising finding. The incidence and severity are, of course, both dependent on where the injury happens.
Most injuries occur to the legs, but these are less severe than arm or shoulder injuries, which cost about six weeks of time away from the game, compared to two only for the lower limbs.
Finally, Tucker found, some training activities carry much higher risk than others. It turns out that fitness testing is the highest risk type of training.
This does not mean it should be done away with, since it is obviously vital to assess players’ conditioning objectively, otherwise the risk of injury during matches may risk as players are poorly conditioned.
However, it does emphasise how carefully such testing should be done, and by qualified people. Other high-risk sessions include, not surprisingly, rucking and mauling training, and defence drills, whereas skills training, line-outs, scrummaging, weight training, and speed, agility and endurance training all carry lower risk of injury.
The dilemma for coaches is to balance these risks with the potential rewards, states Tucker.
Defence, for example, is vital to a successful Super 14 campaign, but the high risk of injury can just as easily cause two or three injuries, each costing two to three weeks of player time and a downturn in the teams’ fortunes.
It is a fine balance, and one which may well determine the destination of the Super 14 trophy. – Sapa
superBul
This is a very good article Some scary stuff, but true.
These players work hard for their dough.
nice article super
dag super en baardman lol hoop alles gaan goed met julle
I just read this article on IOL, it was published in the Mercury. 😀
Rest is for the weary… not the Super 14
By Stefan Terblanche
Resting is so overrated, even though it’s the one thing professional rugby players talk about all season!
We must be in good company then as Professor Tim Noakes of the Sport Science Institute talks about it all the time. But nobody ever listens to him.
After a day or two of rest you actually miss the training, and, believe it or not, you miss the other players. Okay, not the big clumsy tight five, but the other guys.
It is amazing what your body can take and what we as humans put them through. Just go for a walk or cycle early in the morning around Durban and you will see hundreds of runners preparing themselves for the ultimate punishment, the Comrades Marathon.
Let’s rather not discuss this topic as I know nothing about long-distance running – I don’t even go that far on holiday, let alone run that far in a single day.
I’d much rather stick to rugby and get smashed around by a bloke from New Zealand with a bad haircut and an arm full of tattoos. A hooligan’s game played by gentlemen? Apparently!
This week sees us all back at training preparing for our game against the Lions on Saturday.
It’s amazing how scientific the game has become. We will only fly up to Johannesburg on Saturday morning. This is one of the best ways to fight and to overcome the dreaded altitude.
The first 20 minutes in any game on the Highveld is burning hell in your lungs. Work through this and you’ll be fine.
Not only do we fly up on the morning of the game, but long gone are the days of fancy cocktail parties and drinks after the game. It’s straight back on the bus and back to the airport for our flight back to Durban.
It’s sad in a way that you don’t get to spend a bit more time with the opposition to build lasting friendships. With an already congested rugby season and rugby unions on a tight budget, it is part and parcel of the professional era.
The next few weeks will be a rollercoaster for Super 14 fans and supporters. With the log fairly congested and 10 teams still in the hunt for a play-off spot, no quarter will be asked or given. With a few of the top teams still to play, we can be assured of constant change on the log.
For us, the Sharks, it’s really down to one week and one game at a time. We can’t afford to slip up – every week is like a final for us. With it comes a lot of pressure, and a lot is being asked of each and every player.
As Al Pacino so famously said in his final speech in the movie Any Given Sunday: “We are in hell right now and we have to crawl our way out of it. Inch by inch, play by play, until we are finished.”
This pretty much sums it up. Every game you start at the bottom of the pit. Some games you get to the top and see the light and some games you don’t. We are crawling at the moment and heading towards the light.
Till next week, believe.
So what is the answer, must the guys start wearing gridiron type gear to reduce injury stats?
4man 6 No but there is one aspect that needs attention. I believewe shoul further curtail impact at the breakdown. We can all recall the Bakkies clean on Jones in the BIL test. Jones ended up with a badly dislocated shoulder and Bakkies with a ban. What happened was chaotic, because the force applied to clean was excessive. The oke in the ruck has all his focus on the ball, while the cleaner can line up his target from a distance, charge in and take him out like a torpedo. We must be stricter in enforcing the bind to the ruck before contact. It will at least take the cleaner’s focus off his target for a moment and therefor reduce impact, because he will have to slow down.
Hi Sharky,
Good luck for the game against the Lions.
4man, no way.
But Bluebeard, again, I think taking out the physical aspect of it is not a good idea too. As a teacher, I often say to my students “guys, don’t be stupid, please. THINK”. In the case of Bakkies, he was not thinking. It was hard yes, but also reckless. That’s why he should get a penalty or yellow card. Taking out someone when both of you go up fir the ball, is that stupid/reckless? When interfering on an opposition in the lineout, is that “stupid”? These are calls the ref needs to make.
Now, next matter. This article proves only ONE THING!
Quality squad depth. The Bulls lost both their star wingers from 2009. Backup.
If the Stormers lose both their centers, locks or front row, backup.
When the Sharks lost their flyhalf and centers and when their tight 5 was not performing like they should, trouble.
Same with the Cheetahs. MASSIVE depth in lose fwds, none in the midfield/wings.
And the Lions… well, their squad 1st choice is a no go, so where do you go from their?
Injuries WILL happen, its up to the teams to do what they can with it.
WOW this article is ground-breaking! Who knew that if you played a physically intense (read multiple collisions) sport you stand a chance to get injured?
AMAZING!
Certain methods of training are more hazardous than others?
ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLY ASTUTE!
This guy should be an ORACLE, he knows that, which we mere mortals only wonder about…
Now I understand why Andre Pretorius is a perrenial sick note…Tucker never told him that he shouldn’t play rugby.
What the article actually says is, the best way to approach a rugby game, and remain un-injured, is by not playing it at all. Again…WOW!!!
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