We must make rugby a safer game to play - Irwin
Some things never change and with a contact sport comes risk, yet concerns continue to grow regarding the issue of head injuries. Advances have been made, with law changes aimed at reducing high challenges and Head Injury Assessment (HIA) protocols introduced by World Rugby, but the spotlight was shone on the issue further in a recent BBC documentary by former England star Ben Youngs . Head injury in rugby is not new but it may have ramifications for sport as a whole with former British and Irish Lion David Irwin agreeing Youngs' documentary is making people "sit up and say that something needs to improve".
Irwin - a former Ireland international, Ulster player and 29-year doctor with the province - outlined the reason a group of former players including Mick Molloy, Trevor Ringland, Ciaran Fitzgerald and Keith Wood have come together with the aim of making rugby "a safer game to play". "Changes in the game from the amateur to professional era and players becoming bigger, stronger and faster, have led to massive collisions and as a result, there are more players getting concussion-type injuries," Irwin told the Ireland Rugby Social podcast. "It's not just straight concussion but sub-concussive injuries that can put you at risk of degenerative issues down the line like dementia processes.
" While scoring tries remains the objective in rugby, how to do so has changed over the years, with multi-phase attacks, power up front and huge hits dominating, although not exclusively as flair helped France to the 2026 Six Nations title. The introduction of the HIA assessment has "improved things dramatically over the past 15 or 20 years" but Irwin accepts it is not a perfect system. Advances have helped lower the risk in scrums and line-outs but Irwin notes the trend of replacements being dominated by power forwards.
"At the moment there is a lack of space, especially in the professional game with defences so organised, so attacking ploys mean you have to go through multiple phases to create space for backs to run into and that leads to big collisions. "Most of the tackles in the amateur game were side-on because someone was running through a gap but now there are no gaps and the option is to run on to one or two players head-on. "The only way to try and reduce that ongoing risk of collisions is to try and change the way we play the game.
"It needs to pull back from where it is with this attritional, multi-phase game. Try to get back to a more fluid, off-loading game and push the tackle height down further. " Former Ulster and Ireland player Luke Marshall says he suffered 15 concussions throughout his career Former Ireland international Luke Marshall had his share of head injuries, counting 15 concussions throughout his career, but feels there have been huge strides made in terms of player welfare.