International Rugby Board Surveillance Studies

Women’s Sevens Challenge Cup Women’s Sevens World Series Rugby World Cup Sevens (Women) Summary of Results: 2011 to 2013

Colin Fuller and Aileen Taylor 1 November 2013

Rugby Sevens (Women) 2011 - 2013 1

Introduction The IRB is committed to implementing surveillance studies (SS) at all major IRB Tournaments and to disseminate the results within the Rugby community. The aims of these studies are to record and analyse injuries and illnesses sustained by male and female players at individual Tournaments, to identify changing patterns of injury and to bring injury-related areas of concern to the attention of the IRB Chief Medical Officer. There have been no previous reports related to the injury epidemiology for Women’s Rugby Sevens: this review therefore provides the first analysis of injuries sustained in international women’s Rugby Sevens.

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Methods All studies were conducted in accordance with the definitions and protocols described in the IRB approved consensus statement on definitions and procedures for injury surveillance studies in rugby union (Fuller et al., 2007). The definition of injury was: ‘Any injury sustained during a Women’s Seven’s Challenge Cup, Sevens World Series or Rugby World Cup Tournament match that prevents a player from taking a full part in all normal training activities and/or match play for more than one day following the day of injury’. Incidents where a player’s absence from match play and/or training was caused by training activities, illness or other medical conditions not related to a Seven’s Challenge Cup, Sevens World Series or Rugby World Cup Sevens match were not included. A recurrent injury was defined as: ‘An injury (as defined above) of the same type and at the same site as an index injury and which occurs after a player’s return to full participation from the index injury’. Injuries were classified using the appropriate OSICS 8 Code (Orchard, 1995). Injury location, type and cause together with the event leading to the injury were also recorded. Injury severity was determined by the number of days a player was injured. A player was deemed to be ‘injured’ until she could undertake full normal training and be available for match selection, whether or not she was actually selected. Medical staff were required to make an informed clinical judgement about a player’s fitness to train/play on those days when players were not scheduled to train or play. Injured players were followed after each Tournament to obtain their return to play date. The complete lists of categories and sub-categories used for injury locations and injury types are provided in the rugby injury consensus publication (Fuller et al., 2007). Differences in players anthropometric data were assessed using unpaired t-tests; differences in the incidences, mean severity and proportions of injuries were assessed using z-tests and differences in median severity using a Mann-Whitney U test. Statistical significance was accepted at the p=0.05 level, although it is recognised that this could identify some differences that occur by chance due to the number of statistical comparisons being made in the study.

© Dr C Fuller (1 November 2013)

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Rugby Sevens (Women) 2011 - 2013 3

Data collection At the beginning of each Seven’s Challenge Cup, Sevens World Series and Rugby World Cup Sevens, the team’s medical staff explained to each squad player the purpose of the epidemiological study. Each player’s baseline anthropometric information was recorded on a Player Baseline Information Form (playing position [back, forward]; age; body mass; stature); players joining a team’s squad at a later date were added to the team’s list of players and the anthropometric data recorded at the time the player joined the squad. A member of the team’s medical staff recorded every match injury sustained during a Seven’s Challenge Cup, Sevens World Series or a Rugby World Cup (RWC) Sevens match on a Tournament Summary of Injuries Report Form, which was returned to the study co-ordinator at the end of the Tournament. A member of the team’s medical staff also recorded information about each injury on an Injury Report Form (date of injury, date of return to play, location and type of injury, cause of injury, event leading to injury). Injury Report Forms were returned to the study co-ordinator when the final piece of information had been entered on the Injury Report Form (normally the date that the player returned to normal training/match play).

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Results In 2011/12, the Women’s Sevens Challenge Cup consisted of three tournaments in Dubai (2 – 3 December 2011), Hong Kong (23 – 24 March 2012) and England (12 – 13 May 2012): this study recorded players’ anthropometric data and injuries sustained by 8 of the 16 teams involved (Australia, Canada, England, Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, USA). In 2012/13, the Women’s Series World Series consisted of four Tournaments in Dubai (30 November – 1 December 2012), USA (1 – 2 February 2013), China (30 – 31 March 2013) and Netherlands (17 – 18 May 2013) together with the Women’s RWC Sevens in Russia (29 – 30 June 2013): the study recorded players’ anthropometric data and match injuries sustained by 7 of the 12 teams involved (Australia, Canada, England, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, USA). In both 2011/12 and 2012/13 not all teams took part in all individual tournaments. All results are reported as the average of the 2011/12 Sevens Challenge Cup, 2012/13 Series and the 2013 RWC, as the numbers of injuries in each event are too small to provide meaningful results on their own.

4.1 Players’ anthropometric data Table 1 summarises the numbers and anthropometric data for players categorised as backs, forwards and all players during 2011/12 and 2012/13. Forwards are significantly older (p