Sports injury in Australia

The term ‘rugby’ includes rugby union, rugby league, and rugby (unspecified) (see below Rugby categories section for more information on types). Hospital records often do not specify which type of rugby an injured person was playing (see technical notes for more detail).

An estimated 247,400 Australians aged 15 and over played rugby in 2024–25 (ASC 2025). During this period, there were about 4,700 injury hospitalisations attributed to rugby: around 3,800 males and 930 females. The highest number of injury hospitalisations was among those aged 15–19 (just under 1,500 cases), while the 65+ age group had the lowest number of hospitalisations (1 case) (Figure 33).

For more detail, see data table 5.

Trends over the past decade

From 2017–18 to 2024–25, the number of hospitalisations ranged from 2,200 to 4,300 for males and 435 to 930 for females (see Figure 34). Between 2017–18 to 2018–19, injury hospitalisation rates were relatively stable for males and females.

For more detail, see data table 6.

From 2019–20 to 2021–22, injury hospitalisations fluctuated noticeably – a likely effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitalisation rates were at their lowest in 2019–20 for males (19 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) and females (3.8 hospitalisations per 100,000 population). Hospitalisations were highest for males (36 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) in 2020–21.

Across 2022–23 and 2024–25, injury hospitalisation rates had stabilised for both sexes, at an average of 29 hospitalisations per 100,000 population for males and an average of 7.4 hospitalisations for females. Hospitalisations were highest for females (7.6 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) in both 2023–24 and 2024–25.

Rugby categories

Although the available data for rugby injury hospitalisations can be split into league, union or unspecified, hospital records often do not specify which type of rugby an injured person was playing.

In 2024–25:

• Almost 75% of rugby injury hospitalisations were unspecified in terms of category (Figure 35), with a rate of 21 hospitalisation per 100,000 for males (2,800 hospitalisations) and 4.6 per 100,000 for females (630 hospitalisations)
• Of the records where type was specified, rugby league accounted for 82% and rugby union for 18% of injury hospitalisations.

For more detail, see data table 5.

Nature of injuries

For injury hospitalisations from rugby in 2024–25, the top three most injured body parts across all ages were:

• hip and lower limb, excluding ankle and foot (1,300 cases)
• head and neck (just over 1,100 cases)
• shoulder and upper limb, excluding wrist and hand (just under 1,000 cases) (Figure 36).

For more detail, see data table 13.

Fractures accounted for more than half of all injury hospitalisations (or 2,500 cases), followed by soft-tissue injuries (20% of injury hospitalisations or 950 cases) and intracranial injuries (7.5% injury hospitalisations or 360 cases). About 95% of these intracranial injury hospitalisations were concussions: around 265 males and 76 females.

The top three common causes of injury hospitalisations from rugby in 2024–25 were: 

• falls (just under 2,100 cases or 7.5 hospitalisations per 100,000 population)
• contact with living things (e.g. another human) (1,300 cases or 4.7 hospitalisations per 100,000 population)
• overexertion (300 cases or 1.1 hospitalisations per 100,000 population). 

Other causes not listed (including those unspecified causes of injury hospitalisations) contributed to about 19% all injury hospitalisations from rugby.