Body

The Six Nations Rugby Union tournament is in full swing and Europe’s best players are putting their bodies on the line in a bid for victory. Rugby’s a tough sport and sometimes it’s those players’ bodies that pay the price – injury lists from this year’s campaign prove it!

Today we’re having a look at some of the injuries that regularly crop up with rugby players. If you play the game yourself you’ll probably recognise most of the problems we’ve picked out, but if you’re new to rugby then hopefully this guide will help you avoid the worst consequences of any knock you take on the pitch.

While you sometimes can’t avoid an injury in sport, a bit of knowledge and some good medical insurance go a long way to helping you get back on your feet.

Head injury

Stricken Six Nations player: French flanker Wenceslas Lauret missed the opening game of France’s Six Nations after suffering a concussion.

Whether it’s getting down and driving for the line or diving in for a tackle, you often put you’re your head into dangerous positions when you’re playing rugby. Unfortunately this means head knocks are common, and although concussions can come in different severities, they should all be treated seriously.

If you take a knock you should stop playing and get some medical advice. Don’t spend time alone and make sure you avoid contact and collision for at least three weeks. When you do get back to playing, remember to take it easy and watch the head – repeated concussions might mean it’s time to hang up your boots for good.

Hamstring strain

Stricken Six Nations player: Irish fly half Jonathon Sexton went off against England with a suspected Hamstring tear.

Hamstrings are the tough tendons that anchor the muscles down the back of your thigh to your bone – although the name hamstring can also be applied to these muscles themselves. Sudden lunging, running or jumping can cause the hamstring to tear, so it’s a pretty common rugby injury.

If you feel your hamstring go, elevate your leg and get some ice on the affected area. For the first few days you should put ice on the injury for ten minutes every couple of hours to minimize the swelling. Most hamstring injuries will heal themselves given time to rest but for serious tears, surgery might be an option.

Sprained ankle

Stricken Six Nations player: The start of England centre Manu Tuilagi’s campaign was disrupted by an ankle injury.

When rugby players sidestep, quickly change direction or get crushed in a big tackle sometimes the ankle often suffers more than anything else. There are lots of ligaments holding bones together in the ankle joint and if they take a sharp wrench or jerk then these can be damaged, causing a sprain.

The first two or three days after getting a sprained ankle are vital to a swift recovery. If you’ve gone down with a bad ankle twist there are some things that you should do, and some things that you should avoid. Do pay the PRICE (Protect, Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate). But avoid further HARM (Heat, Alcohol, Running, Massage).

Damaged thumb

Stricken Six Nations player: Wales flanker Ryan Jones missed the start of the campaign with a thumb injury.

From running with the ball in hand, to tackling and rucking, the hands are at the heart of a lot of the action in rugby and that means that the thumb can often be damaged. The thumb accounts for 50 per cent of hand function so damaging it can be a really frustrating experience.

As with other injuries, treatment varies based on the severity of the damage Mild sprains might need nothing more than strapping and a rest to clear up, while severe fractures and breaks could need the application of a hard cast or even surgery. As with all of the injuries, if you keep on feeling pain in your thumb get it checked out by a professional.

Shoulder injury

Stricken Six Nations player: Wales skipper Sam Warburton suffered a shoulder injury against Ireland in the opening game of the tournament.

When rugby players go in for a big hit or drive all their forward energy is often directed straight through their shoulder. This extreme force on the shoulder area can lead to an injury.

If you hurt your shoulder in a game, get ice on it as soon as you can. As with many other injuries, the key to a speedy recovery is preventing inflammation at this early stage and ice is perfect for this. If you experience pain and want to get something from the chemists, ibuprofen is the best over the counter medicine for you as it has anti-inflammatory properties. If the injury is a little worse, a course of physiotherapy or even surgery may be required.

Do you play rugby? Are any of these injuries familiar to you?

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But this post will set out to be far more detailed than these sweeping views, which in any case, are often ill-conceived.

History

Rugby union was the original form of the game, and of course the story behind its accidental founding by Rugby School pupil William Webb Ellis in 1784, is well-known. Wind forward 111 years, however, and club officials and players based in northern England, finding it difficult to attract players because their employers would not compensate them for time spent away from their work while taking part in matches. This refusal was seen as a handicap to clubs comprising mainly working class players, who could not afford to lose any income, while those made up of more prosperous men could afford to take time out from their jobs to play their sport.

As a result, a breakaway league of 22 teams was formed out a meeting held in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in 1895. They adopted the ‘rugby league’ name  in 1922, but it wasn’t until three years after this that the clubs started to pay their players – even though, at that time, it was stipulated that their wages had to be covered by money coming through the turnstiles.

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 Differences

The aim of rugby league administrators from the outset was to devise a game which was more free-flowing than union, and one of the first ways they tried to do this was to reduce the number of players in each team from 15 to 13, and to replace line-outs with kicks when the ball left the field of play.

League also eliminates rucks and mauls and, to a large extent, scrums as further ways to keep the game flowing. Instead of this last, play is restarted after it breaks down on the field with a play-the-ball, when an attacking team’s player backheels the ball to a team-mate.

And as opposed to union, in which a team can carry the ball through an unlimited number of phases, in league, once a team’s players have been tackled six times in succession while in possession of the ball, they must hand the ball over to their opponents wherever on the field of play it happens to be. Most often, in order to gain territorial advantage, after the fifth tackle, an attacking team’s player will aim to kick the ball into touch as close to his opponent’s try line as possible. Detractors of league argue that this often breaks up the flow of the game, which teams often having to hand over possession of the ball before they can advance significantly into their opponents’ half of the field.

Scoring

In both codes, points are scored by a ‘try’ which is when a player carries the ball over the opponents’ goal line, and then an attempt is made to kick the ball between the posts from the angle on the pitch equal to where the ball crossed the try line – which are also identical in both codes – to gain extra points, with what’s called a conversion.

Recent times have seen probably the biggest difference between the codes – the amateur ethos of union against the professionalism of league – steadily eroded, and since 1995 players at the highest level of union, in the UK at least, are well rewarded for their commitment to the sport, which in turn has allowed many of them to play the game full-time.

Another recent distinction was made when union officials increased the number of points awarded for scoring a try from four to five, while in both codes, a conversion is worth two points. A try in a league game remains worth four points.

The fine details

Many other fine distinctions exist between the two games, and there is insufficient space to include these in this article. But in essence, the two codes have evolved into distinct games, each with their own strong adherents, although the basic similarities – along with increasing professionalism in union – have enabled many players to cross between them.

Whichever form is played, there’s little doubt that the fast, often high-contact nature of both games is what gives them both their enduring appeal.

James Southerland wrote this article. He is enthusiastic Rugby fanatic, who is careful to insure that his Rugby Player Insurance is kept up to date.

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