SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

THERE HAVE BEEN MANY FACTORS OUTSIDE OF NEW ZEALAND'S CONTROL WHICH HAVE HAD A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON THE GAME IN THE LAST DECADE.

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HEAD INJURY ASSESSMENT

First introduced in 2012 the so-called HIA has had a massively positive influence on the game.

It has enabled rugby to radically transform its collective attitude towards concussion and improve the health and safety of the athletes beyond recognition.

In the pre-professional era, when replacements were not part of the culture, players would stay on the field through all sorts of pain and physical damage. Concussion was certainly not an injury that was taken seriously enough to come off and players could be knocked out, pick themselves up and carry on.

The danger was incredible and yet players were often mocked for being concussed – seen as soft if they complained about it. Players hid their symptoms, joked about being in la-la land and coaches pretended it was nothing to worry about.

That attitude persisted well into the professional age and inevitably, given the increased physicality of the sport, someone was going to be killed if attitudes didn't change.

But they did change with the introduction of the HIA which requires all players who suffer a blow to the head and/or are suspected of being concussed, to leave the field to be examined.

The players are safer. Their longer term health is better protected and perhaps the most telling change has been that players have been prepared to retire on medical advice that says they will be risking their lives by continuing to play after they have suffered a concussion.