Ronan O’Gara has weighed into the debate about concussion in rugby, saying it needed to be taken seriously but should not be over-dramatised.
Now an assistant coach with Racing Metro, the former Munster and Ireland out-half has seen some high profile recent examples of concussions.
Johan Goosen was concussed in Racing’s game against Clermont last weekend – speaking on Thursday, O’Gara agreed that he was still ropey – and it was against Racing last season that Toulouse’s Florian Fritz was controversially re-introduced into play after taking a knee to the head.
O’Gara told RTÉ Sport concussion was widely discussed in the Top 14, and that new safeguards had been put in place.
“It’s very topical in France after the horrible scenes in the Racing-Toulouse game last year, when Fritz was badly concussed, and he came back on to play,” O’Gara said.
“Ever since then there have been new measures and, thankfully, if there is any doubt whatsoever nowadays, the player is stood down for two weeks, minimum.”
“[Players will] do anything to get back on the pitch, so that decision has to be taken away from [them]" - Ronan O'Gara
It was reported last week that a French National League tribunal that had examined the incident decided not to punish Toulouse for what it found to be inappropriate application of concussion protocols.
The AFP reported LNR President Paul Goze as having said that “there were other incidents in the season, so there’s no reason to punish a club because it happened under a bigger spotlight than another.”
O’Gara highlighted the varying responses of players to head injuries, and suggested that this complicated the decision as to when a player was fit to return to play.
“If you got a bang on the head, I can’t answer questions for you,” he said.
“So, it’s very hard actually describe that information accurately. And it’s only when you’re the person in that position you can actually describe what happened you and describe the events you’re feeling post and prior to that.
“I think every situation has to be dealt with [on a one-off basis], but I think nowadays there is a general acceptance that concussion can seriously affect [post-rugby life].”
O’Gara himself famously took a heavy knock to his head the second Lions Test against South Africa, and was suspected to be concussed. He went on to give away a penalty that South Africa scored to win the game and the series.
He said he could remember the aftermath of the disappointing game.
“I can remember it perfectly,” he said. “I can remember just the final whistle, and walking off the pitch, and walking into the dressing-room. That’s what I remember of it. And it was a bad day. A very bad day. But that’s sport.”
During the 2013 Lions tour of Australia there was also controversy when Wallabies flanker George Smith returned the field in the third Test despite clearly having been concussed.
O'Gara said there were two stages when considering an incidence of concussion, and that these should be treated separately.
During the game, he said, the responsibility over whether to play on having taken a knock to the head should be taken away from players.
“[Players will] do anything to get back on the pitch, so that decision has to be taken away from [them],” he said.
“But the decision then, [about] the return to play; obviously that is a decision between player and doctor, and you have to do the cognitive tests, and you have to pass them.”
O’Gara said he had heard stories of players performing deliberately badly in pre-season cognitive tests, so they would measure up well against these results if they were concussed, but said he thought this a strange idea, and that a lot of a player’s result in the test was instinctive.
“It’s like anything else, if you’re doing a test, you do it as well as you can,” he said.
“The great thing about rugby players is that they get up when they get knocked down and that responsibility for deciding when they needed to stop playing should lie with team doctors.
“You might have [taken] a small knock and nothing happened to you, then you may be able to enter into a discussion with them and plead to them about playing,” he said. “But I think anytime there is a serious injury, they have a protocol, and they lay down the law.
“And that’s what players accept, and they move on then, and look upon it as a training period for three weeks to try and make gains elsewhere.”
"You kind of look back and you go, ‘Jeez, how did I get through those games?’"
O'Gara said that playing injured had long been part of playing rugby, and suggested that, in the past, insufficient information about the grave nature of head injuries meant players had not dealt with them appropriately.
“You think you’re actually fine, and it’s only when you go through a period of weeks where you don’t have an injury then you kind of look back and you go, ‘Jeez, how did I get through those games?’ and ‘I shouldn’t have played in those games, because I wasn’t anywhere near fit.’
“But it’s very hard for a rugby player to take the pitch when he’s 100% fit: there are always niggles, there are always aches. That goes with the game, and it has gone, I think, for a long time.
“But in terms of head injury it’s very serious. I think maybe in the past, it was very much an unknown topic, but now there’s an awful lot of new evidence coming through and there have been a lot of injuries among the recent group of players, and fellas having to retire from it, that people are taking it seriously.
“And that’s all we need to do. You don’t have to over-dramatise it, but it has to be taken seriously, just like, unfortunately, neck injuries, or bad knee injuries. It’s as important as that that you get it right.”
