ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2021
How does the situation before a tackle influence a tackler's head placement in rugby union?: application of the decision tree analysis.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tackle-Based Head Injury Assessment (HIA) Risk Factors in the National Rugby League: Does the Ball Carrier's Evasion Technique or the Tackler's Head Position Influence HIA Risk?European journal of sport science · 2026Article
- Decoding the Tackle: Using a Machine Learning Approach to Understand Direct Head Contact Events in Elite Women's Rugby.European journal of sport science · 2025Article
- Reasons for the Reporting Behavior of Japanese Collegiate Rugby Union Players Regarding Suspected Concussion Symptoms: A Propensity Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTacklers need to decide where to place their head based on the evasive manoeuvres of the ball-carrier and positional relationship with the ball-carrier before tackle. Therefore, it is difficult for tacklers to improve incorrect head placement at the moment of contact. Moreover, the characteristics prior to tackle have a relationship with the tackler's head placement. However, how situations lead to incorrect head placement remains unknown. The aim of this study was to identify pre-contact situations that lead to incorrect head placement by using decision tree analysis.
methodsTackles leading to concussions were used to identify events that provoked injury using the video recordings of matches. Injury-free tackle was used as a control. All tackles were classified according to head placements and coded from seven pre-contact factors configured aspect of both tacklers and ball-carriers.
resultsThree situations that led to incorrect head placement were identified. Evasive manoeuvres implemented by the ball-carrier significantly contributed to the head placement at the time of contact.
conclusionOur findings suggest that tacklers should keep their heads up to identify the movements of the ball-carrier, which might lead to tackling the head on the correct side at the moment of tackling and decrease the risk of tackler-related concussions.
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