title: Contact events in rugby union and their propensity to cause injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of contact events in professional rugby union matches and to assess their propensity to cause injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was a two-season (2003/2004 and 2005/2006) prospective cohort design. It included 645 professional rugby union players from 13 English Premiership rugby union clubs. The main outcome measures were: incidence of match contact events (events per game); incidence (injuries per 1000 player-hours and per 1000 contact events), risk (days lost per 1000 player-hours and per 1000 contact events) and diagnosis of injury; referee's decision. Risk factors were player-player contact, position on pitch and period of play.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Tackles (221.0 events/game) and rucks (142.5 events/game) were the most common events and mauls (13.6%) and scrums (12.6%) the most penalised. Tackles (701.6 days/1000 player-hours) were responsible for the greatest loss of time but scrums (213.2 days lost/1000 events) and collisions (199.8 days lost/1000 events) presented the highest risk per event.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tackles were the game event responsible for the highest number of injuries and the greatest loss of time in rugby union because they were by far the most common contact event. Collisions were 70% more likely to result in an injury than a tackle and scrums carried a 60% greater risk of injury than a tackle. The relative propensities for contact events to cause injury were rated as: lineout--very low; ruck--low; maul and tackle--average; collision and scrum--high.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Sports Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2HU, UK. colin.fuller@nottingham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Colin W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.forename: John H M
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.forename: Rebecca J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Cancea
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Simon P T
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Kemp
mesh_terms: D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005538:Football / Q000293:injuries* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors