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RPA statement: Demand to limit players to 30 games per season
By PA
The RPA have called for a limit of 30 games per season to reduce injury risk. New research funded by the RPA indicates that players making 31 match involvements in a campaign face a significantly higher injury burden in the following year.
The Influence of Match Exposure on Injury Risk in Elite Men’s Rugby Union study was conducted by the University of Bath and it defines match involvement as “any time spent on the field”. It built upon a previous study conducted in 2017 and utilised data from the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby.
RPA welfare director Richard Bryan said: “The RPA position is that season match limits should be reduced to a maximum of 30 match involvements of any kind for a player, in order to reduce injury risk.
“Going forward it is essential that this research, and other research on match/training exposure and injury risk, continues to be refreshed along with the assessments and conclusions reached for both the men’s and women’s game.”
An RPA statement added that it could even recommend further reductions to the 30-game cap depending on the outcome of a further ongoing mouthguard study. The research was welcomed in the wider game.
Mark Harrington, World Rugby’s chief player welfare and rugby services officer, said: “World Rugby welcomes all research that has the ability to inform evidence-based moves to reduce the risk of injury in rugby through prevention, management and education.”
Conrad Smith, head of player welfare and high performance for global representative body International Rugby Players, added: “Injury prevention is one of the most pressing issues in our game and this is extremely important research from the RPA.”
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Latest Comments
Excellent analysis Nick as we have come to expect. I was not really aware that NFL strategies have been adopted by rugby teams, especially in defence. One point I would make is that the Northhampton attacking player on the end of the chain in the video examples has not maintained the correct depth to be effective. In the footage shown the outside player is too flat to make the best of the opportunity his inside players have provided. In each case they have to reduce speed and turn their body backwards to secure the ball, losing all momentum and giving the impressive scrambling defence the chance to shut down the threat.
Go to commentsMorning, John. Do you think that it may be a good idea to rest both teams from the Madrid comp leading in to the Olympics
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