Proprioception and the Rugby Shoulder

Abstract

Rugby union is an international sport played by two teams of 15 players (8 forwards and 7 backs) over two 40 minute halves. It is ranked internationally, as a football code, second to soccer, and is the most popular world wide team contact sport involving collision (IRB, 2004). Professional rugby league is a contact sport involving two teams of 13 players (6 forwards and 7 backs), also played over two 40 minute halves. Each tem has a set of six tackles to advance the ball downfield (Gissane et al., 2003). Little is known about the level and pattern of injuries occurring since rugby union became a professional sport, and the number of prospective studies among elite players is small (Brooks, et al., 2005). Prior to Brooks et al., (2005), there have been several prospective cohort epidemiological studies of injuries sustained in professional Rugby Union (Bathgate, et al., 2002; Garraway, et al., 2000. Targett, 1998). The mean incidence of injuries recorded from three studies within professional rugby union is 86.4 injuries per 1000 player hours (Holtzhausen, 2001). Pooled data analysis of injury incidence in rugby league, found an overall injury rate of 40.3 injuries per 1000 player hours (Gissane et al., 2002). Brooks et al., (2005) conducted the England Rugby Injury and Training Audit, which included all 12 Premiership rugby union teams, and England, England ‘A’, Under 21 and England 7’s teams, during the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 seasons. They used the operation definition which had been used previously by one of the authors in research into injuries in professional football; “any injury which prevented a player from taking a full part in all training activities typically planned for that day and match play for a period equal to or greater than 24 hours, from midnight of the day the injury was sustained” (Hawkins, and Fuller, 1999). Detailed analysis of this audit, with respect to shoulder injuries, reports that the average number of tackles carried out during a Premiership match is 250, and that 65% of all shoulder injuries occurring during a match are to the shoulder. During the 2005-2006 season the number of days lost to training or playing due to reported shoulder dislocation or instability was 176 days per 1000 hours play (Heady et al., unpublished). Thus the tackle appears to be the phase of play associated with the greatest risk of injury overall. (Brooks et al., 2005; Bird et al.,1998; Garraway and Macleod ,1995; yet there appears to be scant published research regarding the affect on shoulder joint position sense within rugby players, in general, and the effect that tackling has on it.