The Welsh Rugby Union and Cardiff Metropolitan University are entering their third season of collaboration on a Welsh Rugby Injury Surveillance in the Community (WRISC) research project, and calling for clubs throughout the men’s and women’s community game to get involved.
Last season’s report took an in depth look at injury rates in the men’s senior game, with a handful of clubs in the women’s game also contributing, but for 2024/25 the ambition is to grow the data input significantly in all areas and particularly from senior women’s teams in Wales.
The current report provides an analysis of injury surveillance data from community rugby teams in Wales for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons, but the more data that is collected the more valuable the findings will become so clubs throughout Wales are now being asked to contribute.
This collaboration with Cardiff Metropolitan University is led by Dr Izzy Moore, a Reader in Human Movement and Sports Medicine at Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences, who has been operational in the professional side of the game for 12 years.
The collaboration has recently expanded nationally into community rugby, providing further insight into player welfare at all levels of the game.
Gareth Davies wearing the campaign’s beanie.
The purpose of the research is to understand the incidence, type, nature and severity of both match and training injuries occurring across community rugby in Wales. By monitoring this information, the WRU will gain a more in-depth understanding of injury trends, enabling improvements in player robustness and injury prevention programmes, which will in turn minimise injury risk and enhance player performance and welfare.
The club data across 265 players from 18 participating teams was compiled by Dr Molly McCarthy-Ryan, Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Biomechanics at Cardiff Met.
Geraint John, WRU Community Director, said: “The WRU is dedicated to enhancing player welfare and improving injury reporting across the game and we would like to encourage all of our clubs in both the men’s and the women’s community game to get involved. Research such as this can help keep players safe and ensure everyone can play the game to their fullest potential.”
Dr Izzy Moore added: “At Cardiff Met, we’re committed to applied research with real world impact; with a particular focus on research that has a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of our communities.
“We’re proud that our sports medicine and epidemiology expertise has led to the creation of the first community level, nation-wide injury surveillance system in Welsh rugby in partnership with the WRU.
“We coordinate the data collection and conduct the data analysis, working directly with community rugby teams. This research has the potential to lead to major improvements in injury prevention programmes and we’re keen to encourage as many clubs as possible across the men’s and women’s game to be part of it.”
The next phase of the WRISC project will see expansion across senior women’s community rugby and further development of evidence-based injury prevention strategies.
The WRU is inviting all senior women’s teams to support the study and contribute to this groundbreaking research in women’s rugby in Wales.
Women’s Premiership and Championship teams are also being asked to participate in a World Rugby funded research study on the rate and risks of injury in adult women’s rugby union. This study is a multi-centre Home Nations collaboration and is fully supported by the Scottish (SRU), Welsh (WRU) and English (RFU) rugby unions.
For further information on how to participate, please contact the WRU Integrity Team on integrity@wru.wales
