KEY POINTS:
New Zealand research has shown spinal injuries to rugby players can be reduced by educating coaches and referees to scrum dangers, the British Medical Journal reports.
"Educational initiatives seem to represent a viable option for decreasing the rate of serious spinal injuries in rugby union scrums," New Zealand
Rugby Union (NZRU) research and injury prevention manager Ken Quarrie wrote in the journal.
Spinal cord injuries are a major cause of permanently disabling injuries and death in rugby.
In 2001, New Zealand introduced a programme to educate players about physical conditioning, injury management and safe techniques.
From then until 2005 the proportion of spinal injuries that resulted from scrums in New Zealand dropped to 12.5 per cent from 48 per cent.
There was one spinal injury from the scrum in this period, while the predicted number was nine.
But Mr Quarrie said there was little change in the number of spinal injuries in the other contact areas of rugby - the tackle, ruck and maul. There were seven instead of the predicted nine spinal injuries in these elements of play from 2001-2005. The decline in scrum injuries meant that where tackles had accounted for 36 per cent of spinal injuries between 1976 and 2000, between 2001 and 2005 that percentage rose to 87.5 per cent.
The study by the NZRU research and injury prevention unit compared the number and cause of spinal injuries resulting in permanent disability before and after the introduction of its "RugbySmart" programme.
Referees and coaches, who have a key role in educating teams how to play more safely, must complete the course annually.
Coaches who do not complete RugbySmart have the team withdrawn from the competition; referees are not assigned matches.
The International Rugby Board introduced new rules at the start of the year to improve safety at the scrum by bringing packs closer together to reduce the force on impact.
Under previous rules, the two packs - which can weigh more than 800kg each at test level - often charged into each other from as far as a metre away. Referees are now asking front rows to "crouch, touch, pause and engage" before interlocking.
The change stemmed from New Zealand's introduction in 2001 of its programme to educate players about physical conditioning, injury management and safe techniques.
- NZPA
On the ball
* There were 77 spinal injuries recorded between 1976 and 2005.
* Figures from 1976 to 2000 showed 18.9 spinal injuries could be expected between 2001 and 2005. In reality there were eight.
* Before 2001 the scrum was the most dangerous part of the game, with 48 per cent of spinal injuries.
* Between 2001 and 2005, after "RugbySmart" education of coaches, and referees, only one spinal injury resulted from scrums, compared with a prediction of nine.
* There was little change in the number of spinal injuries in the other contact areas of rugby - the tackle, ruck and maul - after 2001.
* But the drop in scrummaging injuries means that tackles which accounted for 36 per cent of spinal injuries before 2001 caused 87.5 per cent of the injuries between 2001 and 2005.
* Source: British Medical Journal.