Injury surveillance in female youth rugby union: A pilot study in the community sport setting

Background: Rugby injury surveillance has been studied thoroughly in the male professional game for several decades. Recently, this has progressed to include female and amateur rugby populations. Focussed surveillance on female youth rugby is required to fully understand the injury extent in this population before aetiology analysis and subsequent prevention strategies can be explored.
Objective: To describe the epidemiology of time-loss match and training injuries within a community female youth rugby union side.
Participants: Sixty-three participants (mean age 11.73 years; SD 3.86) across six age-grade teams (under-8s to under-18s) in a single female community hub.
Design: Match and training injuries were recorded using a 24-hour time-loss definition over a single 18-week season. Injury incidence, type, cause, and medical attention were recorded. Injury severity and burden on rugby (training and matches) as well as educational attendance were calculated.
Results: Across 35 matches and 18 weekly-training sessions, there were a total of 25 time-loss injuries (19 match and 5 training). Overall injury incidences were 39.01 per 1000 match-hours and 2.94 per 1000 training-hours. Suspected concussion had an incidence of 12.32 per 1000 match-hours and 1.18 per 1000 training-hours. The most common injury location and cause was the knee (32%) and being tackled (28%). The mean severity on education and training sessions was 1.48 days and 16.80 days, respectively.
Conclusion: There is no injury surveillance research in community girls’ rugby across these age-grades (under-8s to under-18s), meaning that injury risk in this fast-developing area of the game is unknown. Future research should include longitudinal studies and consideration of female-specific factors, such as breast injuries, menstrual cycle, and contraceptives.