Dan Robson weighs in on concussion debate

English scrumhalf Dan Robson has lent his voice to the young debate surrounding safety in rugby in terms of concussions.

Just days ago, former international players James Haskell (England) and Jamie Cudmore (Canada) launched Progressive Rugby – a lobby group stressing player safety. This comes after a number of former players announced that they intend to take legal action against various rugby bodies for player-injury mismanagement which has left many with dire long-term ill effects such as early onset dementia.

Progressive Rugby is calling for the following:

• Limited contact training
• An upper-level tackle height review
• A reduction in the number of replacements
• A limit on the number of games a Test player can annually play in
• An increase in the minimum concussion rest period to three weeks

However, Robson has urged caution in tackling this issue, implying that essence of rugby as a contact sport should not be forgotten.

“We understand as players it is part and parcel of the game these injuries, especially these head injuries,” he said.

“It’s a contact sport, it’s going to happen. Unfortunately, as much as we try and manufacture as many situations that it doesn’t happen it’s still going to happen. As long as the players are on the same wavelength and understand that and it’s as safe as possible when we are going into games with tackle technique or whatever it may be, then we can reduce that as much as possible but it is never going to be kind of gone from the sport totally in my opinion. 

“As soon as we talk about getting rid of head injuries completely I think the sport will struggle because you’re looking at a totally different aspect of this sport in general without any kind of contact. 

“It’s a difficult conversation I understand at the minute but for us, as players, we have just got to do everything we can to ensure we are as safe as possible going out on the field and really put what we are doing in the week to fruition at the weekend.”

With regard to the proposed reduction in contact training, Robson said the following:

“It’s tough, isn’t it? You can definitely go that way and then more injuries happen because the body is not used to the contacts as much. 

“You can’t just have that weekend to be a shock to the system with guys running at you and you putting your body on the line. There has got to be a middle line and from my time in rugby, clubs have definitely got better at that.

“Certainly with Wasps the contact we do is a lot more controlled stuff, technique work-based. There is obviously positives and negatives to both sides and I don’t think it will be as easy as saying right, no contact in training and crack on.”