A Profile of Isometric Cervical Strength in Elite Professional Male Rugby Players.

To (1) provide position-specific normative data for isometric cervical muscle strength and endurance in professional, male rugby players and (2) assess the relationship between age, height, weight, and playing position with cervical muscle strength and endurance. Cross-sectional study. Professional rugby players completed peak isometric cervical strength testing followed by a test of cervical muscle endurance.

A comparison of clinical assessment with common diagnostic tools for monitoring concussion recovery in adolescent rugby union players.

Objectives: To characterise the incidence, severity and recovery of sport-related concussion (SRC) in schoolboy rugby players and explore whether the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT), Cogstate Brief Battery (CBB) and the King-Devick test (K-D test) can be used to monitor concussion status through to full recovery.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Rugby union has a high rate of SRC; however, there is little research investigating how concussion affects adolescent rugby players.

Reliability of a neck strength test in schoolboy rugby players.

Background: In rugby union, a bracing mechanism of the neck and trunk is normally adopted in contact situations where high linear and angular forces are produced, which may contribute to the risk for sports-related concussion (SRC).

Objectives: To examine the feasibility of and test-retest reliability, both inter-rater and intra-rater reliability, of a novel neck strength test in schoolboy rugby players and to summarize neck strength values for this cohort, including rugby position-specific estimates.

Materials And Methods: 52 male schoolboy rugby union players completed the neck strength test protocol twice, eight days apart using a novel device.

The use of continuous spectral analysis for the assessment of postural stability changes after sports-related concussion.

Impaired postural stability is associated with a variety of pathologies including sports-related concussion (SRC). Quantification of centre of pressure (COP) movement is the most common focus of instrumented assessment. Frequency-domain COP analyses have focused primarily on summary measures or pre-defined frequency bands but continuous analysis may provide novel and complementary insight into pathological control mechanisms.

Concussion in adolescent rugby union players: comprehensive acute assessment protocol and development of the SSC concussion passport to monitor long-term health.

Introduction: Sports-related concussion (SRC) can be challenging to diagnose, assess and manage. Much of the SRC research is conducted on adults. The assessment of SRC should aim to identify deficits using a detailed multimodal assessment; however, most studies investigating the effects of SRC use diagnostic tools in isolation.