Overview of paper

Objective:

To determine the frequency and nature of injuries sustained during the IRB 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Design:

A prospective, whole population survey.

Population:

615 international rugby players representing 20 teams competing at the IRB 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

Method:

The study was implemented according to the international consensus statement for epidemiological studies in rugby union; the main measures included the players' age (years), stature (cm) and body mass (Kg) and the incidence (number of injuries/1000 player-hours), mean and median severity (days absence), location (%), type (%) and cause (%) of match and training injuries.

Results:

The incidences of injuries were 89.1/1000 player-match-hours (forwards: 85.0; backs: 93.8) and 2.2/1000 player-training-hours (forwards: 2.7; backs: 1.7). The mean severity of injuries was 23.6 days (forwards: 21.2; backs: 26.2) during matches and 26.9 (forwards: 33.4; backs: 14.3) during training. During matches, lower-limb muscle/tendon (31.6%) and ligament (15.8%) and, during training, lower-limb muscle/tendon (51.4%) and trunk muscle/tendon (11.4%) injuries were the most common injuries. The most common cause of injury during matches was the tackle (forwards: 43.6%, backs: 45.2%), and during training was full and semicontact skills activities.

Conclusion:

The results confirm that rugby, like other full-contact sports, has a high incidence of injury: the results from IRB Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2011 were similar to those reported for RWC 2007.

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¹ International Rugby Board, Dublin, Ireland

² Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

³ Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar