Gerry Thornley: HIAs have been undermined

When you think of it, that was actually one of the finest weekends Irish rugby has known in the pool stages of European Champions Cup or its predecessor the Heineken Cup. While Ulster were effectively knocked out, Leinster and Munster qualified with a round to spare and have home quarter-finals within range, while little oul‘ Connacht have taken their qualification hopes to the final weekend.

This would have seemed fanciful in the extreme at the outset of the competition in early October, never mind amid the doom and gloom of this point a year ago.

It's a pity, therefore, that these achievements, and notably Munster's gritty win in Glasgow on Saturday, were to some degree overshadowed by the events that led to Conor Murray undergoing a pitchside head injury assessment (HIA), and the ensuing investigation by the tournament organisers at the behest of the chairman of their medical advisory group, the RFU's Simon Kemp, into what is classified as an untoward incident review.

Of course, the issue of players suffering concussion, and particularly their onfield or pitch-side assessment, is both currently very topical and very serious.

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North incident

This is all the more so in the light of the incident involving

George North

when playing for Northampton against Leicester last month in the Premiership, and especially bearing in mind his history of concussion, which also included an apparent case of the player being wrongly diagnosed when playing for Wales.

An investigation by World Rugby did not impose any sanctions on Northampton, even if it expressed its disappointment and concluded that North should not have been allowed to return to the field after passing a HIA.

On foot of their investigation, the game’s global governing body decreed that even if a player is suspected of having suffered concussion, then the player in question should be permanently removed from the field of play without any HIA taking place.

To a degree you have to wonder how much of this is optics, and at the behest of World Rugby, and to what degree its various umbrella unions and tournament organisers have to be seen to be on top of this issue. It’s also a little discomfiting that one case, and its ensuing investigation, should lead to such a far-reaching decision rather than a much wider study.

Time was when World Rugby, or the IRB as it was then known, was reluctant to introduce the concept of temporarily replacing a player to assess the extent of a head injury, even though temporary replacements had long been in existence for blood injuries, even though it’s usually a lesser injury.

World Rugby’s reluctance stemmed in part from the Bloodgate incident during the Harlequins-Leinster quarter-final of 2009, and a fear that a head bin, no less than a blood bin, could be abused. Then again, you’d have thought that affording doctors greater time to assess players suspected of incurring concussion was eminently the lesser of two evils there.

Undermined

Now, HIAs having long been sanctioned, the game’s governing body have, at a stroke, undermined them. For if it is decided that Munster, no less than Northampton in the case of North, wrongly returned Murray to the field of play after their scrumhalf passed his pitchside HIA, then evidently the HIA itself failed. And if concussed players can pass the HIA, then it will be regarded as not fit for purpose, besides which henceforth the HIA will be increasingly bypassed at the behest of World Rugby.

After all, in its statement summing up its investigation into the North incident, World Rugby said: “The World Rugby head injury protocol clearly states that a player should be immediately and permanently removed from the field of play where there are any visible symptoms or suspicion of a potential concussion.”

However, it is the suspicion of concussion that leads to a HIA in the first place. If there is no HIA, and instead any suspected concussion will result in the removal of that player, might that make players even more reluctant to leave the field with suspected concussion if they know they cannot rejoin the game?

As an aside, one would be happier if one or two Glasgow players had been sanctioned or cited for roughing up Conor Murray, a tactic that in some cases bordered on illegal – not only late hits after his box kicks, but tackling his standing leg. No less than the targeting of Johnny Sexton or anyone else, the game, as well as team-mates, has a duty to protects its players .

Ulster woes

Of course, the other blemish on the weekend from an Irish perspective was Ulster’s third away defeat and resulting eviction from the tournament in all but name. Mathematically, Ulster could qualify were they to beat Bordeaux/Begles with a bonus point and Exeter lose away to Clermont to thus finish second in pool five. But they would then still need Glasgow to lose away to Leicester without picking up a bonus point, and that Leinster beat Castres and Montpellier don’t beat Northampton. So Ulster are as good as gone.

Such is the way of these things, the heat on Les Kiss and the rest of the organisation, along with their fans' disappointment, will be all the more acute if Connacht join Leinster and Munster in the post-Six Nations knockout stages.

When Jerome Graces sent off Jared Payne in the early stages of their 17-15 quarter-final defeat to Saracens at home three seasons ago, the feeling then was that Ulster had missed out on the chance of a lifetime. John Afoa and Nick Williams having moved on, and Johan Muller having returned to South Africa, that feeling has been reinforced.

Ulster have been unlucky this season, not least in not having the injured Marcell Coetzee, but by comparison they are lacking real ballast up front, whether with big ball carriers and tacklers or a potent scrum.

Last Sunday in Exeter was also a glimpse into life without Ruan Pienaar, and that didn’t look particularly encouraging either.

gthornley@gmail.com