Managing the Wellbeing of Elite Rugby Union Players from an Occupational Safety and Health Perspective
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Theoretical Framework
Safety Culture from OSH Perspective
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Study Chronology
2.2.1. Data Collection
2.2.2. Data Analysis
2.3. Trustworthiness
3. Results
3.1. Management’s Commitment to Safety
3.1.1. Management’s Prioritization of Safety
“It’s monitored, say somebody’s appetite is always 10 out of 10, and suddenly drops to six; an alert will pop up. If their sit-and-reach is normally 10 centimetres and suddenly drops to five, an alert pops up and physios are called straight over. Maybe we’ll look at them [the player] to try to pre-empt injury.”(Med12)
“At the start of the season, our doctors and physios hold a meeting to decide on the procedures that will be implemented in different situations, then communicated between coaches”.
“IRFU try to manage somebody across the whole season, and say nobody can play every game. ‘How many games can we get this person to play, so they are healthy at the end of it?’ I think that’s something very important that other countries and unions don’t necessarily do”.
“Then, after games, I go chat to the players who played, see if anyone’s picked up any knocks [injuries] that they didn’t mention, during the game”.
“Obviously, the pressure of sports probably gets rugby coaches to put the medical staff under a bit of pressure, especially with the one-of-a-kind main player that they need in the squad on a certain weekend. But I think that’s probably natural, in this sport.”(Coach6)
3.1.2. Management’s Safety Empowerment
“If I substituted every player with any sign of injury, there would be a lot of changes during a game. But, I’m giving them opportunity to prove they’re okay to continue to play. And they respect that, when it comes to making big decisions”.
“We try and maintain that relationship, and have professional interactions with them so that they see that we are professionals, not just some friends, we are trained professional people giving you what we believe is good advice”.
“It’s a tricky area. Obviously, player-to-coach is a critical relationship in terms of building a team. It’s different because, you’re thinking, ‘if I say this to the coach, will he think that I’m soft?’ Or ‘will he think that I’m weak?’ Or, ‘will he think that this is a real injury or that I’m looking for an easy way out?’”(Coach11)
3.1.3. Management’s Safety Justice
“From a referee’s perspective, one of our primary concerns is the health, safety, and wellbeing of a player. If something happens within the game, the correct reaction must be taken; even stopping the game in certain circumstances. If a referee doesn’t spot in advance, if an act of foul play is committed, depending on the severity of the act of foul play, the referee should react in an appropriate way by either sanctioning a yellow card or sanctioning a red card. And although that doesn’t stop the event taking place, we can prevent further events taking place.”(Mgt10)
“Refereeing in rugby is hugely challenging, be it amateur or professional. It’s a hugely intelligent game, because the laws, in some instances… are quite black-and-white, but in other instances, grey. The challenge for referees is to find the black-and-white in… a grey situation.”(Mgt10)
“The perfect case is Danny Cipriani, playing for Gloucester against Munster two months ago. So there are a lot of decisions that the referees are trying to make… but the changes are hard to make”.
3.2. Players’ Involvement in Safety
3.2.1. Players’ Prioritisation of Safety
“Injury has a bigger impact than just missing a couple of training days. You’ve got the mental side of it too. Because it troubles you, makes you think… if you’re going to feel down, you’re not going to be happy about things, and it’ll affect you in other ways.”(Coach11)
“Someone has a niggling injury… may not be comfortable playing with it. Others maybe have a higher pain threshold or are prepared to train with a little bit of discomfort”.
“You develop mutual trust… when you know players, they are honest with you and tell you how it is. When you don’t have that relationship with players, with health and safety, it’s very difficult to figure out whether that person is okay”.
“instead of relying solely on players and physiotherapists to ensure health and safety-awareness, all staff in the organisation should contribute to decisions regarding players”.
“I think part of that is the culture of the club. Outcomes can take a second place to player welfare for us. I think some of the barriers to implementing health and safety or welfare, I suppose the pressure on outcomes might be greater, there’s a player-welfare-focussed or performance-focussed judgement. If there’s pressure to perform, player welfare can be put to one side or pushed away.”(Mgt2)
“they don’t want to be seen to be the weak one. They want to be seen to be as good or as healthy as the next guy.”(Mgt7)
“I think it’s just the pressure, like the pressure to keep your position and contract. You’re publicly exposed, it’s a competitive situation. People out there, they might have been in the same year in college, and they’re becoming qualified accountants, and they’re starting to make some money, but you’re not.”(Coach6)
“I think it’s because it’s sports, and your decision to play is by your contract, might actually be if you’re getting closer to contract negotiations, and you know you can play through injury, and cover up an injury as much as possible.”(Coach6)
“The more competitions you win, the bigger the cash bonus or wage bonus is. Now, a lot of those players will say they love playing the game, and they’re not really worried about the cash. That’s not true, because their career is only 15 years at most, it’s probably less. They only have that period of time to amass as much income as they can. Earnings would be in the region of €300,000. Basically, that’s a lot of money for a 22- or 23-year-old player.”(Mgt7)
“A player might have a career that’s 10, 15 years, whereas I might have a career in an office job for 40 or 50 years. So, missing time through ill-health is much more significant for players”.
3.2.2. Players’ Trust in Their Co-Workers’ Safety Competence
“I suppose, if you take contact as a major issue, I think tackle technique is important. If you see someone tackling with their head across, and the person is hit… that can be a disaster. And you may see a lot of shoulder injuries by someone who is actually tackling passively.”(Med5)
“It’s quite unique in a situation when those players come in, because they may be playing, passing the ball, to someone who’s never played rugby like that before. So you’ve got the elite of the elite, and… amateurs play with them”.
“Players, who know each other will often be more brave, be very aggressive with someone. But, if they don’t know the other person that well on a foreign team or another club, they might be a little bit reserved and sometimes coaches will have a small part of a training session during the week of a big game. They will say, ‘we’re going to go full metal jacket’. And that means that there are very few rules and people just get barbaric.”(Coach15)
“Every week you have rugby players play for Ireland, but next week in the league they’re playing on opposite teams, so they play against each other all the time. So, it’s difficult to be overly aggressive with your team, with your Ireland teammates. Your teammate is there, but the following week [he] could be your opposition, the opposition player.”(Mgt7)
“I don’t think any of those players would want to injure another player. But I have seen in Irish training sessions where one group of forwards will go against another group of forwards, and some of the players will almost try to injure their own teammates because they might get selected.”(Coach15)
4. Managerial Implications
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A. Interview Protocol
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Participant Pseudonym | Position Involved | Team Level (Highest) | Employment Type | Age Group | Gender | Elite Playing Experience |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mgt1 | Management | Provincial | Full-time | 50–60 | M | Yes |
Mgt2 | Management | Provincial | Full-time | 30–40 | M | Yes |
Med3 | Medical staff | National | Full-time | 30–40 | M | No |
Med4 | Medical staff | AIL 1A | Part-time | 20–30 | M | Yes |
Med5 | Medical staff | AIL 1A | Part-time | 30–40 | M | No |
Coach6 | Coaching staff | Provincial | Part-time | 20–30 | M | Yes |
Mgt7 | Management | AIL 1A | Full-time | 50–60 | M | Yes |
Coach8 | Coaching staff | AIL 1A | Part-time | 20–30 | M | Yes |
Coach9 | Coaching staff | AIL 1A | Part-time | 40–50 | M | Yes |
Mgt10 | Management | National | Full-time | 40–50 | M | No |
Coach11 | Coaching staff | National | Full-time | 20–30 | M | Yes |
Med12 | Medical staff | National | Full-time | 30–40 | F | No |
Med13 | Medical staff | National | Full-time | 50–60 | M | No |
Coach14 | Coaching staff | National | Full-time | 30–40 | M | Yes |
Coach15 | Coaching staff | National | Full-time | 40–50 | M | Yes |
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Chen, Y.; Buggy, C.; Kelly, S. Managing the Wellbeing of Elite Rugby Union Players from an Occupational Safety and Health Perspective. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 12229. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912229
Chen Y, Buggy C, Kelly S. Managing the Wellbeing of Elite Rugby Union Players from an Occupational Safety and Health Perspective. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(19):12229. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912229
Chicago/Turabian StyleChen, Yanbing, Conor Buggy, and Seamus Kelly. 2022. "Managing the Wellbeing of Elite Rugby Union Players from an Occupational Safety and Health Perspective" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 19: 12229. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912229