The popularity of New Zealand’s national game is increasingly facing a foe with potential life-changing impacts; concussion.
Studies have shown direct links between head injuries in contact sports such as rugby - the sport that many generations of Kiwis have grown up with - and severe brain ailments in later life. And that science is now seeing sports bosses and player welfare groups look at ways of keeping rugby players of all sizes, ages and levels safer.
Neil Reid reports that includes the star-studded Progressive Rugby group that has links to New Zealand, including the family of a fallen footy hero.
The legacy of former New Zealand professional rugby player Billy Guyton – who endured a brain injury likely suffered on the field leading up to his premature death – could result in a safer environment for players of all levels.
That will include his profile being formally linked to a UK-based player welfare group pushing for “better protection” for rugby players that it says will “ensure the long-term future of this great game”.
Progressive Rugby – made up of a host of ex-test stars, amateur players, referees, medical experts and others from the rugby community – is pushing for law changes and other initiatives to protect players at all levels “from brain trauma and broken bodies”.
Guyton – a former New Zealand Māori, Blues and Tasman halfback – died in a suspected suicide in May 2023.
More than a year on, post-death testing of his brain at Auckland’s Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank revealed he was a sufferer of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
It is a disorder increasingly found amongst former top-level players of a raft of football codes around the globe.
Now, Guyton has been made a posthumous member of Progressive Rugby’s player welfare group; joining a list of living high-profile ex-international players including ex-All Black, England, Wales, Scotland, Wallabies and Canada representatives who support the group’s campaigning.
Guyton’s tragic plight was highlighted to Progressive Rugby by former All Black Sevens and Māori All Blacks star Shane Christie who was also forced to retire after a succession of concussions.
“Sadly, you often need tragedy to help force change,” Progressive Rugby co-founder Prof John Fairclough told the Herald.
“Billy had 17 diagnosed concussions on his medical record, and his desperately sad symptoms and ultimately death brings a painful reality to the urgent need to better manage players with a history of brain injury.
“Billy’s addition came as a result of a conversation with Shane who felt Billy would be proud to be part of a group who were working to better protect players against the risks associated with brain injury.”
Progressive Rugby bosses approached Guyton’s parents – John and Stacey - before he was posthumously added to the group’s list of high-profile ambassadors who are campaigning for safety improvements.
“After learning what our aims were, they were both hugely supportive as they want Billy to be remembered, and for him to be part of the move to bring positive change to the game,” Fairclough said.
In early 2021, shortly after it was formed, the group wrote to World Rugby calling on it to do more to protect players from the “dangers of injury”, including brain injuries.
In the open letter, it added “World Rugby has a moral and legal duty to minimise risk and to inform players and parents of the risk of brain damage from repeated knocks”.
Concussions, and associated long-term impacts of brain injuries, were “the greatest threat to the game worldwide”, the group wrote.
The Guytons could not be contacted for comment.
But in a statement from Progressive Rugby, they said their late son would have wanted to support anyone looking to better protect players against the potential long-term consequences of repetitive brain injuries.
“Billy loved the game and we know he would have been proud and excited to have represented a group striving to ensure both the players and the game can have a long and healthy future,” John said.
Guyton died aged just 33.
His parents donated his brain to science, with pathologists later finding he had Stage 2 CTE.
The revelation made Billy the first New Zealand professional rugby player to be diagnosed with CTE and sent shockwaves through the rugby community.
Prior to his death, he had suffered from anxiety, depression, mental confusion, light aversion and serious memory lapses.
Christie and former All Black prop Carl Hayman – who has early onset dementia and likely CTE – are other former New Zealand players on Progressive Rugby’s panel.
Hayman is now among more than 100 former rugby players who are taking legal action against World Rugby and the England and Wales rugby unions amid claims those sporting bodies failed to protect them from permanent injury relating to repeated concussions.
Progressive Rugby has been campaigning on more stringent testing for concussed players before they can return to play.
At the community level of the game, it is also pushing the message that if there was any doubt a player was suffering from symptoms, to “sit them out”.
As concussions could sometimes be brought on by hits not directed at the head, the lobby group is also urging rugby bosses to “urgently recognise the need to reduce the number of impacts” that players are exposed to in their careers.
“This means playing fewer games (by position) through effective squad rotation, minimal and mandated contact training limits, and protected rest periods,” Fairclough said.
It also wants a mandatory 21-day stand-down period for players who have been concussed.
Fairclough said such a move was “optimal to best protect both the short-and-long-term brain health of players at all levels of the game”.
The group’s mandate was not just restricted to campaigning for changes which it believed would make players less likely to suffer concussions and their debilitating impacts post-career.
Its injury-reduction focus also sees Progressive Rugby not only backing the recent World Rugby ban on the ‘crocodile roll’ - a term given to the now illegal cleaning out of opposition players at the breakdown – but urging match officials are “rigorous” in the way they police the law.
The action was something that Fairclough said posed a “catastrophic injury risk to lower limbs”.
World Rugby has previously welcomed Progressive Rugby’s arrival, saying it was clear " these members of our rugby family love the game and want it to be the best it can be. We do too”.
It said it was “encouraged” that the group was “championing” several initiatives the game’s ruling body was pushing through, and said it was also “open to constructive discussions with them regarding their proposals”.
“The welfare of the global rugby family is, and has always been, World Rugby’s priority. We take our responsibility very seriously and care deeply about our past, present and future players.”
World Rugby said it was guided by “always guided by medical and scientific consensus to inform our concussion education, prevention and management strategies”.
Fairclough added it was “stories like Billy’s that fuel our drive to keep lobbying governing bodies for the off-field changes that can mitigate the risk to players at all levels of this wonderful game”.
Suicide and depression
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Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience.
The 37-year-old added a second straight victory over his English rival.