The unusual solution of a former international referee to avoid blows to the head: limit pick & go

The former international referee, Owen Doylehe requested world rugby to implement a decision to limit the amount of pick and go that occur during a match, which could prevent head injuries. All rugby, on Disney+ Premium Plan.

Concerned about the number of head injuries due to the way players penetrate the defense once they want to play the ball from a ruck, Doyle insisted it is time to reconsider the situation: limit the number of consecutive pick and gos to three in any sequence of play. That would force teams with the ball to be more creative, and would also reduce the number of collisions, where the ball carrier advances with his head down and is vulnerable to being hit in that area.

In his column in The Irish Times, Doyle referred to head injury evaluations and wrote: “It is becoming almost impossible for the human eye to observe which players need to be evaluated, even with the help of replays”.

Furthermore, Doyle emphasized that the introduction of drop-ingoal was introduced to avoid pick & go, but stated that this idea was not successful. “Dan Sheehan is a wonderful player, a hooker of his generation. In pick & go situations, as usual, he leads with his head, which means his brain takes repeated hits. Repeated subconcussive impacts to the head have the potential to cause long-term brain damage, but do not demonstrate the typical effects of concussion.”held.