'I hope and pray that rugby will get through this dark moment'
James Drake is feeling conflicted. He loves his rugby. Has done so ever since he was enchanted as a young boy playing at schools level in Cardiff. And yet, he has grave fears for its future. Concerns that resulted in him setting up the Drake Foundation and ploughing over £2.2million into concussion research these past few years.
The generous spend by his not-for-profit organisation isn’t confined to investigating head injuries in rugby. There have been intriguing projects on the brain effects of heading a football and even head impacts suffered in domestic violence, more of which will emerge later this year when those latest reports are published.
It was rugby, though, which originally tickled the curiosities of the Drake Foundation, a Premiership club swinging its doors open in 2015 with a warm embrace, and the use of blood samples became the kernel behind the 2021 publication of the Drake Rugby Biomarker Study which found that 23 per cent of current elite players had structural abnormalities to their brain white matter or blood vessels.
Separate to that, another Drake concussion study found that elite players from the amateur era aged 75 and over who had suffered three or more concussions had a poorer cognitive function score than those with fewer or no concussions.
It’s all food for thought in an unsettled climate where rugby is jeopardised by lawsuits issued on behalf of players whose brain health is alleged to have been damaged by concussions when playing the sport.
Following the release of this study, we are calling for further changes within #rugby to prioritise player welfare. Click below to read the findings of our study in full:https://t.co/Nzh7TkVyRD
— The Drake Foundation (@thedrakefdn) July 23, 2021
The Drake Foundation has nothing to do with upcoming courtroom concussion battles. Legalities aren’t its thing, but the organisation’s founder was deeply touched when earlier this year he met with Steve Thompson, the 2003 England World Cup winner who can no longer remember anything about that wonderful match in Sydney and whose brain health trauma has been well documented.
“I am influenced by the fact that Steve is an incredibly lovely man, an incredibly disarming, unassuming human being,” said Drake to RugbyPass over a 30-minute Zoom call from his Foundation’s HQ on brain health and concussion.
“I’m an amateur portrait painter and I sent him a painting on his birthday. He sent the most beautiful note to me about how he loved it and so on and I found myself moved by that. You couldn’t but be moved by that. At a human level, I was completely disarmed and moved by Steve. He is one of the finest people I have met for a very long time, without any shadow of a doubt.”
Traumatic rugby stories such as Thompson’s weren’t in the public domain when Drake had his interest originally piqued by concussion in sport. But what he has realised in the years since setting up the foundation is that there are now plenty of red flags that he believes rugby’s ruling bodies must notice and react to. “There were a number of main reasons for starting it [the foundation],” he explained.
“My father was coming to the end of his life. I had been a great rugby fan, I’d really been happiest on the rugby pitch as a schoolboy in Cardiff and my father also loved rugby, so I wanted to do something in the name. When Barry O’Driscoll left World Rugby, I picked that up. He is someone of high integrity and must have left for good reasons.
“I’d a science background so I understand the concepts and in 2013, I wanted to do something philanthropic and wanted to set something up and the most important thing I have achieved since then is to connect contact sport, mainly football and rugby, with neuroscience research.
“There were some disturbing incidents on the football pitch at the time, Hugo Lloris, the Tottenham goalkeeper, staying on the pitch with a concussion. There was rugby’s George North with a number of concussions, incidents that from a common sense standpoint were stupid and I wanted to go out and get some evidence.
“There is no point saying something, you have to get evidence. I wanted to fund studies and I also wanted to start a conversation around this whole area, and the conversation now takes the form of an annual meeting that we convene with the FA and the RFU, which is now called the Drake Sports Head Impact Research Symposium.
If you work in brain health or IPV research, care, policy or advocacy, you can register for a free ticket at the Symposium – find out more and book your place here >> https://t.co/vNbZ0w0y47 pic.twitter.com/Ihfxr1sUCC
— The Drake Foundation (@thedrakefdn) July 27, 2022
“I went to a Premiership club in 2015 and to my amazement not only did the CEO and the owner say, yes we will get involved but all the players said yes and that was fantastic. I had two ideas for studies – one was a biomarker study, compounds in the blood that tells us something over time about brain health.
“The other was neuroimaging, to be able to show there were changes to the white matter of the brain that everyone could understand. We built it up to six or seven teams, including a women’s team and some rugby league teams.
“Seven years ago I couldn’t have said to you rugby is unsafe. It was my instinct that safety was going in the wrong direction but I could go no further than that. Now I can say, hand on heart, elite rugby is not safe in my opinion. That does not mean it applies to the grassroots but the problem is these things spill over.
“We did a survey that showed that two-thirds of parents of youths players are concerned about long-term effects and two-thirds of amateurs are concerned about long-term effects so it does affect the game right through, unfortunately. Could more have been done? Yes. In the last two years, it is true to say that World Rugby and the RFU have tried hard to address these issues but I don’t think they have still gone far enough.”
World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont is another ex-rugby player that Drake has painted. “Bill is a lovely man, I painted him three or four years ago. I have a lot of respect for him. I have made it clear to him what I feel about these things [brain health]. I have never flinched from it and I have my viewpoints. I respect Bill, we all know he is a good man but I have made my points very clear and I don’t believe elite rugby is safe at this time.”
The attitude that Jackman refers to isn’t a rarity in the sport. @thedrakefdn’s Rugby Union Ambassador, Lewis Moody, recalled similar attitudes in his playing days and is pushing for improved health protocols within the game:https://t.co/o1yyeqfo2B
— James Drake (@jamesjpdrake) August 1, 2022
If he had free rein to implement change to improve the concussion situation, what would Drake do to assuage his fears about rugby’s safety? “The past is a different country but if we can return to the game pre-95 hypothetically, people like me would not be jumping up and down with concern.
“When you get to your 70s you are going to get some cognitive effects but when you get to your 40s and your brain health changes, that really does flag up. It’s only several hundred (ex-players) but nevertheless, combined with the data we have shown, it does raise a red flag to me.
“I’m not an expert on the laws but there are three things that one can say with reasonable confidence: one is reducing the number of impacts in training. To be fair to World Rugby they have recommended a reduction to 15 minutes a week. I would say to them, make it mandatory.
“Secondly, it would be common sense that instead of bringing on eight fresh players at 60 minutes, do that only when there is injury or genuine fatigue. And thirdly, they have to find some way of reducing the accumulative intensity of impacts in the elite game. It’s going to carry on and we do need common sense to address it.
“Rugby is something that has been there from my childhood, been there all my life. It’s the wonderful crowds, the good humour, the feel-good factor. It’s hard to put it into words, the game is a joy to watch from many angles but it’s that wonderful feel-good factor of being together with a lot of people and feeling the same way.
Good to see the issue of brain health in rugby being discussed on @btsportrugby – open dialogue like this is key to the further progress that is essential in this area https://t.co/B8jqodDLZn
— The Drake Foundation (@thedrakefdn) March 28, 2022
“I love the game. It’s very hard to put it into words but I do enjoy it so I hope and pray that rugby will get through this dark moment. Without any question, it is a dark moment and we just have to get through it and make some changes. They will be needed and I’m sure it will come through to the other side.”
One thing that the Drake Foundation believes would be of benefit would be if broadcast media were more willing to embrace concussion research even though the language brain health findings can be difficult to translate to the regular rugby fan.
“This subject is now talked about a lot more but I am not aware of any commentator in the last year mentioning our study and I am not aware that any of the rugby discussion group programmes have mentioned our study which is sad in a sense.
“I would have thought they could have mentioned it in passing but here we are, they haven’t and yet it [the research] is out there. It’s only one study, of course, but it would be nice to air some of these things in a responsible way in the media.
“It would be so easy to get the study taken out of context. I am at great pains to say to you it is a small study and there weren’t any clinical symptoms. We don’t if there will be later down the line, I’d be very careful to say that.
“But they [broadcasters] are probably a little bit afraid because they can’t put it in the right context. I understand that. There are regular newspaper articles but I would just like to see a little more televised discussion. That said, we have come a long way.
“Funding research and creating conversations have brought together collaborators who might previously not have met across sport and science and over the last seven, eight years the conversion in this area has massively increased and it is now at government level.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments