Injury surveillance during the 2011 FNB Varsity Cup rugby season

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:OBJECTIVES: The primary objective was to establish and compare the injury incidence in forwardsand backline players during the 2011 FNB Varsity Cup season. The secondary objective was toestablish and compare the injury prevalence in forwards and backline players during the 2011 FNBVarsity Cup season. Lastly, to establish and compare the different training loads, types of injuries andinjury rates amongst the various rugby teams during the 2011 FNB Varsity Cup.STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective, descriptive study was done to assess injury prevalence andincidence during the 2011 FNB Varsity Cup rugby (premier division) competition.PARTICIPANTS: Male rugby playing students, from eight teams. The total number of observed rugbyplayers from the seven teams consisted of ±23 – 30 players, all between the ages of 18 and 25 years(23 ± 1.2 years). All players had to qualify according to the rules of the Varsity Cup23,45.METHODS: The data collection procedure and injury definitions were aligned with the respectiveconsensus statement for rugby injuries12. The injury surveillance included all injuries that werereported on the standardized IRB injury form (Addendum D), by each rugby team's medical supportstaff. There were eight rugby teams partaking in the 2011 FNB Varsity cup, premier divisiontournament. The FNB Varsity cup took place at eight University venues in South Africa. The FNBVarsity Cup round robin began in February 2011 where games were played every Monday eveningsover a seven to nine week period, on a home and away basis. The play-offs of the top four teamsfollowed for two more weeks. Injury surveillance statistics were calculated and compared withtraining loads and the number of hours of exposure. Injury rates are expressed as the number ofinjuries sustained per 1000 hours a player is at risk. Descriptive statistics were used to report theprevalence and incidence of all injuries during the tournament. A significance level of p<0.05 wasaccepted.RESULTS: Seven out of the eight teams participating in the 2011 FNB Varsity Cup were able to submitinjury and training statistics. Of these seven teams, there were 178 (6.1 injuries per 1000 hours)injuries in total reported throughout the season. 61 pre-season injuries were found (2.1 per 1000hours) compared to 117 (4.0 per 1000 hours) in-season injuries reported. There were 125 matchinjuries (89 per 1000 hours) and 52 training injuries (1.58 per 1000 hours) which was statisticallysignificant (p = 0.039). The total number of new injuries were 120 (4.1 per 1000 hours) with only 52(2.0 per 1000 hours) recurrent. The lower limb was affected by 97.5% of the total injuries. Over-allthe most injured sites showed a common trend, namely the ankle and foot with 15.9% and the head15.3% of the total injuries. The shoulder (11.4%), hamstring (10.2%), knee (10.2%) and quadriceps(9.7%) were all similarly affected. The injury sites varied between forwards and backline players(forwards: 63.4% backline: 36.6%). The forwards most injured anatomical site showed a trend withthe shoulder and ankle (0.5 per 1000 hours) being affected the most. The hamstring (0.4 per 1000hours), ankle, head (0.3 per 1000 hours) and knee (0.2 per 1000 hours) were the most injured siteamongst the backline players. The tackle was responsible for the cause of the majority of the injuries(total: 19.1 injuries per 1000 hours) amongst the forwards and backline players (forwards: 20.5 per1000 hours backs: 13.6 per 1000 hours). The most common types of injuries were sprains (18.2 per1000 hours) and strains (24.5 per 1000 hours) found amongst the forwards and backline players. Theforwards had higher contusion and concussion (0.3 per 1000 hours) trend rates compared to thebackline players. The backline had overall higher tendinopathy (0.2 per 1000 hours) trend rates.Amongst the forwards, the locks (15.2%) and props (12.9%) had the highest number of injuries andamongst the backline players were the wings (8.4%) and centres (9%) were the most injured players.The majority of the injuries occurred during the last part of the first half (26.7%) and the last part ofthe second half (30.7%).CONCLUSION: The prevalence and incidence of match injuries was significantly higher than duringtraining (p = 0.039). Similarly to other injury surveillance studies, the tackle was the most dangerousphase of play. The Forwards who are more engaged in a greater number of physical collisions in agame resulted in more injuries compared to backline players71. The backline players, due to theirstyle of play had more running and accelerating injuries5,24. Fatigue and other confounding factorssuch as a lack of physical conditioning, travel and academics could be a determinant to decreasingthe threshold for injury's occurring during the last part of each half of the game, during matches22.Furthermore, the site, type and mechanism of injuries vary across individual playing positions as wellas from team to team24,26. This suggests that different training styles for the various positions shouldbe recommended as an addition to an injury prevention protocol at this level of rugby.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University