Today’s episode is an edited version of a talk about rugby union’s concussion crisis which I gave to the North of England Medico-Legal Society in Newcastle in April 2025, for which I’d like to thank Alex Littlefair for the invitation.
It looks at the history of concussion in men’s rugby union, examines how it has changed over the past fifty years, investigates the impact of professionalism, and looks at the weight of cultural traditions which have held back the sport’s ability to deal with the crisis confronting it.
As well as looking at the evolution of its attitudes to concussion, I also look at how rugby union’s hyper-masculine traditions – inherited from its founders in the mid-nineteenth century – have shaped its understanding of injuries and have remained essentially unchanged over almost two centuries.
Perhaps we can find the roots of the problem not only in today’s hyper-professional sport but also in its roots as the symbol of nineteenth-century manhood?
