Full stadiums, catchy anthems, posters that smack of nostalgia and comments from the duo Pierre Salviac – Pierre Albaladejo. With February comes the Six Nations Tournament, clinging to a piece of childhood. But not all (TV) viewers will follow the venerable competition with this candy pink filter. Thus, if alix popham “still love rugby” and “watch the matches”, “it’s no longer with the same eyes” as when he defended the Wales jersey from 2003 to 2008.
“I am attentive to each contact, to each ruck, underlines the former third line with 33 selections, engaged in a fight to make safer a sport where colossi of more than 100 kg chain collisions, word passed in the current vocabulary. of discipline. I’m educated now, not like when I was a player. »
For Popham, seeing his compatriot Tomas Francis aligned against France during the 2022 Tournament, 11 days after suffering a K.-O. manifest against England, is unbearable. Like seeing that the Australian scrum-half Nic White was allowed to return to the lawn last November against Ireland, despite a dull look and a staggering pace.
Because the Welshman paid a lot to be “educated”, according to his expression. In April 2020, he learned that he suffered from dementia praecox and more than likely chronic traumatic encephalopathy (ETC), a degenerative brain disease that can only be confirmed post-mortem. “I had symptoms for nine or twelve months but I found excuses: fatigue, stress”, describes the former Diable Rouge (43), who ended his career in 2011 in Brive. Popham resolved to see a neurologist after getting lost on a bike ride he had done a hundred times before.
A more frequent pathology in certain sports
“Strangely, the diagnosis was a relief, I finally knew the cause of my problems. “These irreversible brain disorders, manifested by memory problems, sudden mood swings and episodes of depression, are found in large numbers among former practitioners of contact sports such as boxing, American football and, therefore, rugby .
In December 2020, Popham and a hundred ex-British players, including Steve Thompson, world champion with England in 2003 – an event he no longer remembers – announced legal action. Their targets: World Rugby (the international federation) as well as the English and Welsh federations, accused of poor management of concussions.
“Rugby must be safer so that mums and dads are not afraid to send their children there, continues the former Corrézien. I’m relieved that my three daughters didn’t ask me to play it. Today, boxing is safer than rugby. After a concussion, a boxer does not train for a month, and he does not fight for three months. »
On the oval side, World Rugby decreed last June a complete rest of 7 days minimum for a player without history or symptoms, and 12 days minimum for a player with history and / or with symptoms (persistent headaches, for example) . An improvement compared to the previous protocol, which sometimes saw a rugby player K.-O. on Saturday to play the following weekend, but insufficient in the eyes of Popham and his fellow combatants.
Appeals in France also (but less)
With Steve Thompson (ex-Brive), former Canadian 2nd line Jamie Cudmore (ex-Clermont) and former All Black pillar Carl Hayman (ex-Toulon), the Welshman also played a leading role in the appeal series administrative proceedings brought by around twenty players who played in France against the Federation (FFR) and the National League (LNR), last November.
“What the players want is for the institutions to take note of the extent of the problem, for them to react in a proportionate and adequate manner so that rugby can continue as a contact sport, develop their lawyers Nino Arnaud and Foucauld Prache, gathered in the Alekto cabinet. They don’t want a sanitized version. They are passionate people, not people who want to make money with this cause. »
For now, on the French side, only Sarah Chlagou (ex-Stade Rennais) and Quentin Garcia (ex-Chambéry) announced to be among the plaintiffs. Why this discrepancy with their foreign colleagues?
These are necessarily mixed causes, specific to each, reacts the Alekto cabinet. But it is certain that the fear of standing up against the institution plays a role. The fear also of wondering about one’s own situation and the possible consequences of one’s practice. A lack of union culture, perhaps. It’s a complex question, but no one in French rugby is fooled: players playing in France are just as much – if not more – concerned by this problem than the Anglo-Saxons. »
Alix Popham approves: “The French players must come and fight with us. We will be stronger together. Especially since I think the phenomenon is worse in France. The training there is much more physical, with two strong championships – the Top 14 and the Pro D2 – and many more players than anywhere else. And then, the season is very long. »
Recent news does nothing to contradict the Welshman. On January 27, The Team revealed that the 2nd line international Sébastien Vahaamahina risked stopping his career, at barely 31 years old, because of repeated concussions. At the beginning of December, another ex-Blue from ASM, Alexandre Lapandry announced the filing of four complaints against X after his dismissal by his club, which he blames, among other things, for non-compliance with the concussion protocol.
Asked in the wake of a press conference, the 3rd row of Racing 92 Wenceslas Lauret, another former XV of France, got loose : “I suffered several concussions at the start of my career. I was arrested three months at a time. I knew the time when it was taboo to talk about concussions in rugby, the time when the coach congratulated you because you hadn’t been out when you were… I remember Dusautoir taking a shock, who staggers and continues. It was okay. Today the slider has changed and that’s great. Once the brain has burnt out, there is nothing more to do. » »
Lauret and “the burnt brain”
Speech is freeing up in France, but without catching up with the other side of the Channel. Created in February 2021, Progressive Rugby Association poses as a lobby to defend the health of practitioners, bringing together former players (Popham, Thompson and Hayman again, but also the English James Haskell and Kyran Bracken) and doctors, like Professor John Fairclough. “At the beginning, there were a dozen of us, explains the latter, who notably worked with the Welsh Federation (WRU). Now we are close to 50 registered members, hundreds on our mailing list and close to 10,000 people following us on Twitter. »
Progressive Rugby ran working groups with World Rugby until last July. Before the body decides to “pause” the dialogue, in the words of a spokesperson, because members of Progressive Rugby are among the former players who have sued.
If it is pleased to “have contributed to rugby going in the right direction”, with in particular “the extension of the return to play of a concussed player”, the association is campaigning to push this duration from 12 to 21 days. But also so that a concussion victim does not return to the lawn (currently, this is possible if the protocol is passed successfully) and to reduce contact in training. Because beyond the obvious concussions, other less spectacular shocks can cause enormous damage.
“90% of concussions in training”
“In my career, I had two knockouts. identified, reveals Alix Popham. But my neurologist told me about 100,000 sub-concussions, 90% of which occurred in training. » The Welshman, co-creator of Head for Change Foundation, ensures that 350 British rugby players now know that they suffer from the same disease as him, as well as more than 100 treizistes. Tireless pilgrim of the cause, in everyday life as on Twitter, Popham notably shared a recent study from the universities of Exeter and Oxfordindicating that “a person who has suffered at least three concussions will have neurological sequelae”.
Faced with the accumulation of cases of dementia, how are the authorities reacting? After receiving the mail from the plaintiffs represented by the firm Alekto, FFR and LNR assured that “the health of players, amateurs and professionals [était] the priority of the authorities of French rugby”. Fédé and Ligue also highlighted “many actions, often cited as exemplary, undertaken for years at the international and national level to detect, reduce and take charge of concussions”.
More or less the words of World Rugby, including a spokesperson joined by 20 minutes refers to the “world experts” present in “our independent task force on concussions”. “We care, we listen and we never stand still when it comes to making rugby the most cutting-edge sport in player welfare.” Good, because time is really running out.