George North RFU report

[fleabane]

http://www.englandrugby.com/mm//Documen ... nglish.pdf

[watsonjm]

What a joke.

"The CMRG’s view is that there was sufficient evidence to conclude not only from the video evidence but also George North’s history and risk stratification that he should not have returned to the field of play. Northampton Saints medical team has accepted that North may have lost consciousness and therefore should not have returned to play".

That sentence says it all but because North hasn't had any major effects since being knocked out there are no sanctions. What happens they next time they get it wrong and is allowed to play on and then has major effects later? it'll be to little, to late.

Utter shambles by the RFU. Player welfare is important to them my big back side!

[jgriffin]

Clear that the Review had no problem in assessing that consciousness likely to have been lost for 5 seconds. Equally clear the medical team should not have accepted his assurance re loss of consciousness (as transient loss is usually forgotten or not registered), and they should've repeated the whole protocol in the dressing room -but they didn't.
What is worse - has North had a full screening with scans? Surely a graduated return now should involve a period of neurological reassessment (I believe O'Driscoll suggested 3 months or even the rest of the season! AFAICR).
Will he admit to further transient issues - even if he is conscious they have occurred? In your early 20s you feel invincible.
Not comfortable with this. If he were my son, I'd want a break for him from rugby while full assessment occurs.

[sapajo]

Shades of the Salary Cap debacle, let's face fact it was never going to be anything else other than toothless. To me the RFU, Premiership Rugby and the Club's are a self protectionist cartel.

[jgriffin]

Shades of the Salary Cap debacle, let's face fact it was never going to be anything else other than toothless. To me the RFU, Premiership Rugby and the Club's are a self protectionist cartel.

Agree.

[Grimlish]

Shades of the Salary Cap debacle, let's face fact it was never going to be anything else other than toothless. To me the RFU, Premiership Rugby and the Club's are a self protectionist cartel.

It seems that way for sure, but if so it will become an example of short-termist protectionism - as soon as we have a case of negligence brought by a player we'll see where the roulette wheel stops spinning....

To me this smacks of a 'deal' to satisfy the lawyers - Saints catch the blame but no penalty in return for not having to challenge (in the courts?) a likely heavy fine or some other injunction (what other options does the the Premiership have?).

And if I were George North's Dad I'd want to make sure the people assessing him as fit to play this week have absolutely nothing to do with those making decisions at Welford Rd or since for his club.

And Mallinder should be ashamed for his comments.

[fortysix]

Madness, head in the sand mentality..
He has very very serious issues and needs to see a top specialist with full scanning applied.
RFU need shooting.

[Cagey Tiger]

The expected near "whitewash" as far as the handling of George was concerned. At the age of 60, I won't be around to see if he suffers any long term effects.

[tigercaspian]

Most at Saints seem happy with the outcome then, so nothing to see here - move along, move along :-

http://www.rugbynetwork.net/boards/read ... 1,15847762

[strawclearer]

The expected near "whitewash" as far as the handling of George was concerned. At the age of 60, I won't be around to see if he suffers any long term effects.

Sadly - for him - that may not be the case. Go forward 25 years and I hope you'll be sitting in the Crumbie with a flask of sloe gin reminiscing about the good old days when Tigers won the Eurpean Cup every year from 2016 to 2021. I hope you won't be talking about that Welsh lad who kept getting concussed but wasn't properly looked after - with consequences that affected him in his late 40's.

[jgriffin]

http://tinyurl.com/z2ta2qg

Kitson in the Grauniad.

[voice of the crumbie]

In my humble opinion the way to stop this sort of thing happening again is to have all HIA's carried out by independent medics rather than those employed by the clubs thus allowing player welfare (which should always be the overriding concern) to take priority.

[Rykard]

http://tinyurl.com/z2ta2qg

Kitson in the Grauniad.

Kitson seems pretty spot on to me.

I thought the stance taken by Ben and flats on rugby tonight was interesting. No sanction is good??, no mention of giving them any suspended sentence even though they were found totally guilty?? bizarre

[drc_007]

Have to say I'm not happy with the whole head injury assessment concept.

If you think someone needs a head injury assessment then they should not play in the rest of the match.

[Rykard]

Luke Wallace? said on Rugby tonight that he thought he would have been able to pass the HIA depending on the hit he had taken. Some of the damage only becomes apparent later....