Establishing the protocols and writing the laws is the easy bit. The harder part is changing attitudes among players, coaches and officials and driving a cultural revolution that ensures everyone understands how far their duty of care extends.
As has become apparent in recent weeks, the battle to instil better management of suspected concussion is very much ongoing.
A range of directives and procedures have been put in place since 2012 designed to create a clear process of what needs to happen if a player is suspected of being concussed.
The guidelines leave no grey areas — yet there have been three stories this season already that have shown the game in New Zealand still needs a cultural revolution if players are going to be safe.
"What we are aiming for is that players across the country voluntarily put their hands up after taking a head knock in training and say they don't feel well and take themselves out of the selection frame," says Neil Sorensen, New Zealand Rugby Union general manager of professional rugby.
"If we say that is 10 out of 10, and us [NZRU] simply not caring at all about concussion is zero out of 10, then I'd say we are currently at about four out of 10.
"I think we are still miles away."
The highest profile case this year was the incident involving Highlanders prop Josh Hohneck. He was knocked out in a collision with Crusaders flanker Jordan Taufua — and on that basis should have been permanently removed.
There is a list of indicators laid down by World Rugby and if a player shows any of them after a head collision, he should be taken off and not returned without the need for a concussion test.
But because neither the Highlanders doctor nor the match doctor saw the video footage, they were unaware Hohneck had lain motionless for more than 10 seconds. Hohneck somehow passed the concussion test and was able to play on.
New Zealand Rugby Players' Association executive director Rob Nichol says efforts are ongoing to tighten the test to reduce the number of false negatives — that is, players passed fit to play when they are concussed.
The issue in the Hohneck incident was not with the effectiveness of the test, but the failure of an extended group — medics, coaches, management, referee, TMO — to ensure doctors saw the video footage of the collision before they allowed Hohneck back on the field.
The Head Injury Assessment [HIA] was extended this season to a 10-minute window to provide ample time for medical teams to review available footage so they could see players' physical reactions after the head knock.
World Rugby's indicators are important because the goal of the HIA is to not diagnose concussion but to identify suspected concussion.
That Hohneck passed the test wasn't relevant because, if medics had seen the footage of him being knocked out, they would have immediately suspected concussion.
In amending the HIA procedure for this year, there had been discussion about making it compulsory for doctors to review video footage before they determined a players' fate after a head knock.
It wasn't adopted — only because there were concerns about whether the technology would be available at all ITM Cup games.
"There is no doubt Josh should have been removed and not returned to play," says Nichol.
"We have new procedures and protocols so we are still going to get people not sure what role they have to play. But we need people — coaches, managers, officials — to be proactive and make sure that the doctor sees video footage.
"We have a conservative management policy and, remember, a player can be removed on the basis of suspected concussion.
"We know that means we will remove some players who are not concussed and we don't want players to argue with that or say they have had a raw deal.
"This is an issue that we simply can't muck about with and we need everyone to be clear about what is acceptable."
Sorensen says union officials have been talking to chief executives and coaches in the last week to reiterate expectations.
"We made a mistake [with Hohneck] and everyone agrees that he should never have been allowed to come back out and play. No one disputes that. We have put the acid on everyone on this.
"The easy bit is the technical part — putting the regulations in play. We have got to do more to get a shift in attitudes."
