Player Welfare
Published Papers
Here, you can find links to papers that members of World Rugby's Research Unit have contributed to, including original research articles, consensus statements and reports from funded projects undertaken by external academic institutions.
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Injury Surveillance Guidelines
| Fuller et al., 2007 - Consensus statement on injury definitions and data collection procedures for studies of injuries in rugby union | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Brown et al., 2019 - Guidelines for community-based injury surveillance in rugby union | Link to article |
Injury Risk Factors and Prevention
| Tucker et al., 2017 - Risk factors for head injury events in professional rugby union: a video analysis of 464 head injury events to inform proposed injury prevention strategies | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Tucker et al., 2017 - A video analysis of head injuries satisfying the criteria for a head injury assessment in professional Rugby Union: a prospective cohort study | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Cross et al., 2019 - Tackling concussion in professional rugby union: a case–control study of tackle-based risk factors and recommendations for primary prevention | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Stokes et al., 2021 - Does reducing the height of the tackle through law change in elite men’s rugby union (The Championship, England) reduce the incidence of concussion? A controlled study in 126 games | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Starling et al., 2023 - The World Rugby and International Rugby Players Contact Load Guidelines: From conception to implementation and the future | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Bussey et al., 2025 - Contact role and tackle characteristics shape head injury head acceleration exposure in male community rugby: A cohort study using instrumented mouthguards | PDF Download |
Concussion
| Patricios et al., 2018 - Implementation of the 2017 Berlin Concussion in Sport Group Consensus Statement in contact and collision sports: a joint position statement from 11 national and international sports organisations | PDF Download | Link to article |
Head Injury Assessment Protocol
| Fuller et al., 2017 - Evaluation of World Rugby's concussion management process: results from Rugby World Cup 2015 | Link to article | |
| Fuller et al., 2020 - The performance of the World Rugby Head Injury Assessment Screening Tool: a diagnostic accuracy study | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Tucker et al., 2020 - The effect of exercise on baseline SCAT5 performance in male professional Rugby players | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Tucker et al., 2020 - Baseline SCAT Performance in Men and Women: Comparison of Baseline Concussion Screens Between 6288 Elite Men's and 764 Women's Rugby Players | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Falvey et al., 2021 - Head injury assessment in rugby union: clinical judgement guidelines | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Fuller et al., 2021 - Diagnostic Utility of New SCAT5 Neurological Screen Sub-tests | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Tucker et al., 2021 - Sport Concussion Assessment Tool: baseline and clinical reference limits for concussion diagnosis and management in elite Rugby Union | PDF Download | Link to article |
| Tucker et al., 2021 - Effect of a concussion on subsequent baseline SCAT performance in professional rugby players: a retrospective cohort study in global elite Rugby Union | PDF Download | Link to article |