Rugby

The term ‘rugby’ covers both the major codes, rugby union and rugby league. Hospital records often do not specify the type of rugby an injured person was playing.

An estimated 296,000 Australians aged 15 and over played rugby in 2019–20.  There were 2,650 injury hospitalisations attributed to rugby—2,215 male and 440 female. This is 1,990 less than the year before. For those aged 15 and over, the rate of hospitalisations was about 710 per 100,000 participants.

The highest number of hospitalisations was in the 15–19 age group (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Age distribution of rugby injury hospitalisations, 2019–20

Column graph showing the age distribution of injury hospitalisations.

Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A14.

Half of these injuries were fractures (51%), and another 1 in 5 were soft-tissue injuries (22%) (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Rugby injury hospitalisations, by type of injury as a proportion, 2019–20

Bar graph showing the proportion of injury hospitalisations by main type of injury.

Note: Type of injury is derived from the principal diagnosis.
Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A25.

There were 213 hospitalisations for concussion. 175 were male and 38 were female.

The main injury was most often to the hip and leg (29%), followed by the head and neck (24%) (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Rugby injury hospitalisations, by body part injured, as a proportion, 2019–20

Outline of a person with body regions labelled, marked with the percentage of hospitalised injuries for each region.

Note: Body part injured is derived from the principal diagnosis.
Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A26.

Where it was specified, the cause of injury was most often either ‘falls involving another person’ (57%) or ‘contact with another person’ (29%). (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Cause of injury as a proportion when specified, rugby injury hospitalisations, 2019–20

Bar graph showing the proportion of hospitalisations by cause of injury when specified.

Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A27.

Seasonality and COVID-19

Because rugby is a winter sport, injury hospitalisations are usually highest between April and August. The interruption caused by COVID-19 is evident in the drop from March 2020 (Figure 5). There were around 86% fewer hospitalisations from March to June in 2020 than the same period in 2019.

Figure 5: Rugby injury hospitalisations by month of admission, 2017–18 to 2019–20.

Line graph with 3 lines for 3 financial years of hospitalisations by month of admission, illustrating the drop in hospitalisations after March 2020.

Notes
1. Months have been standardised to 31 days.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.  

For more detail, see data table B3.