RFU probe to tackle the rising number of injuries

A brutal British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa preceeded a bone-crunching start to the Guinness Premiership season which decimated Martin Johnson's England squad for the Autumn Internationals and has already claimed flanker Tom Croft ahead of the forthcoming Six Nations.

The England Rugby Injury & Training Audit, revealed yesterday at Twickenham, recorded 769 match injuries sustained in the Premiership, Anglo-Welsh Cup and European competitions and 258 injuries suffered in training during the 2008/09 season.

As a result the Rugby Football Union, Premier Rugby and the Rugby Players' Association are to target a reduction in knee ligament and hamstring injuries sustained by players.

The report found that elite players suffered an extra 119 injuries over the course of the 2008-9 season – an increase of 20 per cent or 0.3 injuries per club per match from the 2007-08 season. England bucked that trend with match injuries falling from 55 to 23 although results for the current season would doubtless show a marked increase.

An injury is defined as preventing a player from training and/or playing for more than 24 hours with the average numbers of days' absence as a result of each match injury increasing from 19 to 23 days.

Consequently, the total number of days absence due to match injury increased to 2,285 days in 2008-9 compared with 1,613 days the previous year – the highest level reported since the study began in 2002-3.

The report centres on the season Leeds Carnegie were battling to win promotion into the Premiership.

Now in the top flight the club have suffered their fair share of bumps and bruises but feel confident they and the rest of the league are equipped to stem the rising tide.

Leeds's director of rugby Andy Key said: "We are concerned to see that there has been an increase in injuries compared to last year.

"At Leeds over the last 18 months we have been heavily involved in developing a strong emphasis on pre-hab which is put in place to reduce the number of soft-tissue injuries like the hamsting or the groin. And we have found it to be very successul.

"Some of the injuries that the report refers to could be attributed to the contact area which has become more competitive since the law changes.

"Post Christmas though in the Premiership, there has been a greater emphasis on releasing the ball quicker which not only has improved the standard of rugby for the spectator with the amount of tries scored, but could also contribute to a reduction in injuries."

In light of the report the game's governing bodies are to implement proposals to reverse the figures. Dr Simon Kemp, of the RFU, added: "We will be commissioning specific studies into knee anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament injuries, as well as hamstring injuries, so that we can better understand why these injuries occur, how they might be prevented and what we can do to treat them better."

Saracens director of rugby Brendan Venter has been found guilty of "conduct prejudicial to the interests of the Union" for comments he made about Premiership referee David Rose.

An RFU disciplinary panel last night handed Venter a four-week ban from matchday coaching, suspended until December 31.

He was alleged to have questioned the integrity of Rose in comments he made following Saracens' 22-15 defeat to

Leicester at Vicarage Road on January 2.

Mathieu Bastareaud has been recalled to the France squad for the Six Nations.

Scotland have recalled Dan Parks and named uncapped Glasgow team-mates Ruaridh Jackson and Richie Gray.