Former Wales internationals have backed a new study into how repeated head impacts affect women’s rugby players.
Cardiff University’s medical engineering team aims to create the first head impact assessment protocol designed specifically for female athletes.
The study followed 30 players from the university’s women’s rugby team using specialised mouthguards, cognitive tests and MRI scans.
Researchers hope to collect enough data by the end of the year to determine whether new guidelines can be introduced.
Lead researcher Peter Theobald said: “The female brain is different from the male brain and women’s rugby is different from male rugby, so if we were only to use the same safety threshold as we do for men, that would seem inconsistent with the evidence that we understand so far.”
Research suggests female athletes are more susceptible to concussion than men and may experience longer recovery times.
Symptoms can also differ. Men are more likely to experience amnesia, while proportionately more women report prolonged headaches, mental fatigue and difficulty concentrating.
Despite these findings, rugby’s concussion guidelines are still largely based on research involving male players.
Former Wales fly-half Elinor Snowsill, who won 76 caps during a 14-year international career, is among those backing the research.
She said: “We are not just mini versions of men.
“It is so important to understand our bodies and that we have systems in place that are best suited for us, not just taken from the men’s game.
“There is no game [of rugby] that is more important than your brain.
“It is the one thing you cannot replace. You can rehab any muscle or have a knee replacement, but you have to have your brain for the rest of your life. Nothing is more important than your health.”
Researchers are unsure why women may experience concussion differently from men.
Possible factors include differences in brain structure and neck strength, as well as strength and conditioning, how the women’s game is played and women’s later introduction to the sport.
The lack of research into women’s sport is not limited to rugby.
Only six per cent of sports science research has focused solely on female athletes, according to PhD student Freya Butcher, a member of the research team.
She said: “We aim to contribute to that pool and gain a better understanding of the way that female physiology interacts with our sports.”
Former Wales wing Caryl James said it was concerning that research into female athletes was only now being carried out.
She said: “That really worries me and I feel women have definitely been let down over the years.”
The mouthguards used by the university team are similar to those used by World Rugby in elite competitions.
They measure the force, speed and direction of head impacts, with medical staff alerted when an impact exceeds a set threshold.
Players are then required to leave the pitch for a head injury assessment.
The research will examine whether these thresholds should be refined specifically for the women’s game.
Cardiff University player Cleo Pallister-Turley said the study had made the team more aware of concussion.
She said: “Both on and off the pitch, the study has made the whole team a little bit more wary about head health, in a way that throughout my 13 years of playing rugby hasn’t been spoken about.
“The previous season I would have just got up after any hit to the head and thought it was fine to play on.
“But last season, you’re a lot more aware of it, even though the data wasn’t fed back to us.”
Former Wales centre Alecs Donovan said awareness of concussion had been lacking during her playing career.
She said: “It wasn’t the coaches or the medical team that knew I was concussed because I carried on playing, it was at work a couple of days after.
“I worked as a medical rep. I was in operating theatre and one of the doctors there said he thought I was concussed, just because of how I was feeling.”
Snowsill said players had previously been reluctant to report possible concussions because they feared being removed from matches.
She said: “I remember playing and thinking that one of the women had hit her head, but at the time other players didn’t know how important it was.
“They just knew it would mean they wouldn’t be able to play, so a lot of the players would try to hide it, and I would question whether I should report it.
“Although it’s your friend, you want to do what’s best for them even if they would be angry with you for doing so.”
Concussion has become a major issue in rugby, with hundreds of former players taking legal action against the sport’s governing bodies.
English World Cup winners Steve Thompson, Mark Regan and Phil Vickery, along with Welsh British and Irish Lions Ryan Jones, Gavin Henson and Dafydd James, claim the authorities failed to protect them from the neurological effects of repeated head impacts and concussions.
The six-year legal battle remains in the balance following two days of High Court proceedings, as the judge considers whether the claimants complied with an order to provide documents relating to neurological testing.
Despite the documented risks, Pallister-Turley said she hoped the research would not discourage people from playing rugby.
She said: “The idea of this research is not to scaremonger, it’s to invest in more research that allows you to make an educated and informed decision about your head health.
“The sport is great in terms of friendships and camaraderie; it means so much to so many people.”