'Crouch, bind, set!' - and the scrum is safer

Fewer rugby-playing schoolboys are being injured on the field, thanks in part to new laws governing the scrum.

James Brown, a University of Cape Town researcher at the Sports Science Institute of SA, said that since the BokSmart programme was introduced the number of serious head and neck injuries sustained by schoolboy rugby players had dropped by 39%.

BokSmart was introduced in 2009 after a surge in injuries.

It was adapted from the RugbySmart project in New Zealand, which reduced scrum-related spinal injuries in that country.

BokSmart focused not just on scrum-related spinal injuries but on all rugby-related injuries classified as catastrophic. Before its introduction there was an average of 6.5 serious head and neck injuries a year among schoolboy players. This has dropped to four.

Said Brown: "Rugby players have an above-average risk of injury compared to participants in other popular team sports."

Jurie Roux, CEO of the SA Rugby Union, said: "BokSmart has proved at schoolboy level that education can make a big difference.

"Every coach and referee is required to be BokSmart-certified, and the training emphasises safe techniques and putting players in physique-appropriate positions."

Scrum-related injuries have been found to pose the greatest threat, accounting for a third of all serious injuries in the game. As a result, one of the main changes implemented by BokSmart was in the scrumming laws.

Said Brown: "Over time, the 'crouch, touch, pause, engage' sequence was causing harder and harder hits and this was affecting injury rates.

"By 2010, there was major concern. A new method - 'crouch, bind, set' - was then introduced to shorten the distance between the players before they engaged."

BokSmart also introduced an injury surveillance system for Craven Week and, from this, a set of minimum safety standards was devised.

It became compulsory for all coaches and referees to attend a safety course.

Morné du Plessis, chairman of the Chris Burger/Petro Jackson Players' Fund said: "Having safety structures in place that parents can rely on to keep their children safer is something that so many of the injured players that our fund assists never had the benefit of in years gone by.

"You can't manage what you don't measure."