Women’s rugby injuries - incidence and causes
We’re thrilled to share the thoughts of Omar Hayward, England U20s Lead S&C in this article. This is the fifth and final in a series of articles written by Omar which tackle some important topics in women’s rugby right now.
If you’re one of the unlucky ones to suffer an injury in your playing career you’ll know how frustrating they can be. Understanding the common injuries that occur in rugby is helpful in planning your training. Some injuries are bad luck but many injuries can be prevented with good strength training and time spent developing effective movement patterns.
So what are the most common injuries in women's rugby and why do they occur?
Omar writes:
In 2019 a scientific review of all match and training injuries in women’s rugby 15’s and rugby 7’s was published [1]. This review included 10 studies where the playing level of participants ranged from community, school, college, regional, national and international from 14 to 43 years old.
Overall, the most common injury location was the lower limb, but this varied depending on the level of play. High school players commonly suffered head and ankle injuries. College players commonly had head injuries. At the international level, knee and neck injury were most common. Just like injury location, the injury type also varied by level of play. High school and college players commonly had strains, fractures and concussions as the most common injury types. At the national level, ankle sprains and concussions were common. At the international level, ankle, calf and shoulder joint sprains occurred frequently.
When looking at the reason injuries occur, as you might expect, the tackle seems to be the cause of the most injuries. Ball carriers have recorded more injuries than tacklers at the college and international level but in high school, tacklers suffered more injuries. Non-contact injuries are also frequent and can account for up to 40% of rugby training injuries.
From a practical perspective, to help reduce injury risk, training programmes should include resilience work for the lower limb as well as the neck and shoulder girdle. Furthermore, the importance of appropriate tackle technique can never be understated to reduce injury risk in rugby.
Your training may include single leg strength and balance exercises, and specific neck isometric holds to help protect these areas that may be at greater injury risk. Dedicated sessions to improve technical elements of the tackle should also form an essential element of your training.
[1] King, D., Hume, P., Cummins, C., Pearce, A., Clark, T., Foskett, A. and Barnes, M., 2019. Match and training injuries in women’s rugby union: A systematic review of published studies. Sports medicine, 49(10), pp.1559-1574.