Three-year Prospective Cohort Injury Surveillance And Injury Risk In College Men’s Rugby Team

Rugby Union, characterized by high-impact collisions, has a high prevalence of sport-related injuries compared to other team sports. While elite-level injury surveillance reports are available in scientific literature, there is a paucity of research at the collegiate level. Furthermore, limited studies distinguish injuries during skills practice and strength & conditioning sessions (SC), which have vastly different physical demands. PURPOSE: To describe the injury incidence in a male Japanese collegiate rugby union and explore injury incidence by types of activity and injury. METHODS: Certified athletic trainers recorded practice and game exposure hours (athlete hours; AH) and time-loss injuries for three seasons (2021-2023). Injury incidence per 1,000 AH with 95% confidence intervals [95% CI] were calculated. Activity types were classified into game, practice, or SC. Time loss was defined as the number of days it took for an athlete to return to full participation. The injury burden was derived by multiplying a given injury's average time loss and the associated incidence. The Orchard Sports Injury Classification System was used for injury classifications. RESULTS: A total of 158,236 AH were recorded, with 2.4% for games (3,834 AH), 54.9% for practices (86,755 AH), and 42.7% for SC sessions (67,639 AH). A total of 690 injuries were recorded (games, 251 [36.4%]; practice, 353 [51.2%]; SC, 86 [12.5%]). Injury incidence was 65.3 [95% CI, 57.5, 73.9]) for games, 4.1 [3.7, 4.6] for practices, and 1.3 [1.0, 1.6]) for SC per 1,000 AH. Average time loss was 40 days (game, 40 days; practice, 41 days; SC, 34 days), with an injury burden of 2,606.3 for games, 167.4 for practice, and 42.8 for SC. Injuries to the head (20%), ankle (20%) were most common during games, with ankle (19%) and thigh (29%) being the most injured anatomic locations during practice and SC, respectively. The leading injury type differed across the type of activity (game, concussion; practice, ankle sprain; SC, lower back pain). CONCLUSION: The injury incidence in Japanese male collegiate rugby was comparable to the elite level. Injury patterns during games, practice, and SC were distinctly different, suggesting the importance of activity classification in developing effective injury prevention strategies.