Refs add Blue Cards in bid to control rugby head knocks

Keith Groube, referee education officer for the Hawke's Bay Rugby Football Union, with one of the new Blue Cards which will be used for players with head knocks or concussion. Photo/Duncan Brown

Another card is being added to the kit of rugby referees in Hawke's Bay from Saturday as the national game steps up efforts to eliminate long-term damage from head injury.

The new tool is the Blue Card which referees may issue players with significant head-knocks during a game, meaning they cannot return to the game on the day and committing them to stand-downs of at least three weeks unless cleared by a medical practitioner.

Clubs run the risk of the equivalent of a blow to the head with teams likely to be stripped of hard-earned competition points if they allow players back into the game before they are cleared.

To prop-up the system referees have been especially tutored on recognising the signs of concussion, players will be advised to see a doctor within 24 hours, and doctors' fees will be reimbursed either through usual ACC procedures or by the New Zealand Rugby Union.

Like the red and yellow cards, which have been used as disciplinary measures for several years, the Blue Card will be available in all 12 of the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union's opening weekend Premier and Reserve/Division 2 Town and Country club matches.

The move strikes a chord with HBRFU club rugby manager Gary Macdonald, who has a first-hand reflection on the reasons behind the move.

"My rugby career effectively ended at high school," he said. "I lost three days of my life through retrograde amnesia."

He did play a little "social rugby" in the following years, but was mainly a case of if-only for the youngster who had harboured the dream of most New Zealand boys of his era, satisfied only by a contemporary some years later.

"One of the guys paid me a compliment," Mr Macdonald said. "He said: We always thought you were going to be an All Black."

The introduction of the card follows trialling which started in Northland in 2014, and a decision by the Hawke's Bay union ahead of the national union's own decision to introduce the new controls in the interests of player safety.

An education process was begun last year with the help of Brain Injury Hawke's Bay, the union also stepping-up monitoring of injury reports as it worked towards more improvements.

Unions had previously introduced Rugby Smart, which offers compulsory courses for coaches in the interests of training to prevent injury.

The Hawke's Bay union has been collating reports of head injury, with 16 reports across the grades in 2015. Stepping-up education and awareness of concussion the union had 38 reports last year.

Union referees manager Keith Groube said that "on the field" little will change for players, and referees won't be "going out hunting" for people to be issued the card.

"It's all about the safety of the player and manage the situation in which they return to rugby, without hammering themselves," he said.

The Blue Card was introduced in Bay of Plenty club rugby when its new season started on Saturday. While none were used in the 12 premier and senior games, there was one injury in an Under 15 pre-season match.

"It was an obvious case, the poor boy was taken to hospital in an ambulance," said Bay of Plenty referees manager Pat Rae, who as a Havelock North player made three appearances in first class rugby for Hawke's Bay in 1993-1994.

But there was a wave of 24 yellow cards (10-minute suspensions) for players who "haven't been listening" to warnings about dangerously high tackles.