Breanne N. Transcript
Hi, I’m Breanne and I play rugby internationally. So I’m a professional rugby player. I’ve been playing for about 10 years with the Canada Sevens team, and I also played in university and high school growing up.
The topic today is concussions, and it’s not something that everyone likes to talk about or knows much about, so sharing stories is an important part. So I’d like to help with that.
I remember my first concussion would’ve been in university and at the time, like you don’t have any awareness of maybe symptoms or signs, and you might be playing through a concussion that you don’t know about. And I feel like that’s how I initially started knowing about concussions.
So in university, like I was diagnosed with one through my 15 rugby season in my first year. And then I remember doing midterms and like studying for them and after the midterms the professors were like, oh yeah, you could have opted out of the midterm or delayed it and written it when you got back. And like those are like little things that you don’t know about.
And then, but I would say like I, it was very, I was very inexperienced with that one, and then I was with rugby, it’s like a very contact sport. There are laws in the game that have changed over the years, which I’ll touch upon after. But at the beginning, like you just, you have your tackle technique, your contact technique kind of thing, but you just, when I was younger, I would just like go on out there like full on, maybe not being aware of what I’m doing as much or like really putting my body on the line.
And over the years, since I’ve had multiple ones since then, I’ve learned to, it’s always like an awareness thing that I think about of, is this the smartest thing right now? I can still be aggressive and play the game, but be more smart around it.
So I had another concussion when I was with Canada Sevens. So this was like years later. So it would’ve been my second concussion diagnosed that I know of. But my second one, and at the time I also didn’t know that I sustained it during a tournament. So I think it would’ve been like probably day one of a two-day tournament.
I must have sustained it. People, my teammates noticed more before I did, like I was a bit off. And I remember playing through and it was only a couple days after the tournament when I was just like, man, I just don’t feel right. I have like headaches kind of thing. I remember reaching out to my physio or our sports physio, like within our team, and explaining how I was feeling. And then like I did the concussion assessments and was diagnosed with that.
So I definitely played through a concussion that I didn’t know about. And then that was the one that I kinda returned back from too early also. So then it really prolonged the recovery and ’cause I didn’t know how to go about it. Or you kind of like justify symptoms as other things and you just wanna play because that’s what I’m doing as a profession. And the one that gets taken away from you, your identity’s kind of gone in a sense.
And then with other injuries, not to say you should play through other injuries, but other injuries you can get away with playing through maybe like a little bit of a strain or it’s like in rugby you’re very tough and you just, okay, you kind of like, you got your foot stepped on or something. Or I’ve played with broken toe before and it’s just not the same. You learn that your brain is important. You can’t just play through concussion.
So then I learned that the hard way on my second concussion because I was just trying to return too fast and it really delayed the recovery process and the return. And that one was like a couple months it took. And I remember like feeling, I guess depressed in a sense, ’cause it’s like you can’t play and you don’t know if, if you’re feeling so bad because of the actual concussion or because you can’t do the sport that you love. Or even just like daily things can be affected. So I definitely learned from that timeframe.
And then there’s like thoughts in your head, am I ever gonna play rugby again or am I gonna be okay again? Will I always have symptoms? So that would’ve been, this one would’ve been back in 2019, 2020. Which, yeah, I have talked about that one since then.
And then since there, there’s been like minor ones throughout, like I’ve probably had like a handful since, and it’s always, I’ve definitely gone about it way better. Or even if you have doubt, the saying—I don’t know if it’s a real saying—but the saying I go by is, “If in doubt, sit out.” So like I really try to make sure I’m listening to my body. And if any sort of signs happen, then you really assess it and maybe not play through.
And again, the technique and not just using your body as a weapon in rugby or in sport helps. And then I’d also touch upon, the laws of rugby have definitely changed over the years too. So even awareness in the sport, even within the last two years or the last five years and when I first started, has grown immensely. And there’s been a lot of laws of the game that have changed specifically around head health and like trying to prevent concussions, but also to deal with them if it does happen.
So we always have like the preseason assessments and there’s also mouth guards now that have like the electronic chip in it that we just got introduced last season. And that tracks head impacts and number and severity in any games. And we’re supposed to wear those throughout the Seven Series. So that’s new.
And then the World Cup’s coming up this summer, and they also have the mouth guards that even will light up if there’s like a major head impact. Then the player will need to get sent off for assessment before returning to the game. So some people think it’s an annoying thing, like some people maybe don’t believe in concussions or the severity or they’re like, it’s all in your head—yeah, pun intended. But I think it’s very important for the game and for athletes and just to step out, even just get assessed, even if it’s not even a concussion, just to take a moment and assess before getting back in.
Question:
“Are rugby tackles different than football? Could you just like speak a little bit about how you tackle and how you keep your head out of the way when you make that form tackle?”
Answer:
Yeah, definitely. And sometimes it’s not even when you’re tackling, it’s when you’re getting tackled, or a lot of the time, like there’s rucks and there’s multiple things that have contact in rugby. And I know we focus a lot on like the tackle technique, and then obviously there’s other dimensions around it, but you wanna put your head on the opposite side of, in the line of, like, the momentum of the person with the ball.
And then I know people always ask the big comparison between American football and rugby, and the contact is a big part of it that’s different because in football, you can hit people without the ball. But in rugby it’s like, when you have the ball, you know you are ready for impact kind of thing. Like blindsided hits aren’t allowed.
And the laws now, like any sort of contact to someone’s head or face is like an automatic yellow almost—could be even a red. So like they have a lot of laws for the head now. And then obviously there’s rucks and stuff, and even with rucks, it’s usually such a vulnerable position. I don’t know if you know rugby that much, but you are usually in a low position whether you’re on the attack or defense side of things.
And you’re still not supposed to just aim for someone’s head. Like you can still get carded for that too. So they’re even carding people on the attack side of things for head impacts and stuff. And not just throwing your body out there like you’re invincible, because you’re not. You can still be aggressive and hit hard, but you think about your head at the time. And you don’t want it to always just be like a shadow on your shoulder being like, watch your head. But it’s still something you consider, especially for people who have had multiple or even one concussion.
Question:
“You said that you have to wear, or they’re starting to use chips in mouthpieces. You said that would be for the Canada or for the Sevens tournament. Do you know if the league is providing those mouth guards, or would you have to buy your own?”
Answer:
So I can speak on Sevens. Last season is when it was introduced and they came and custom fit us with mouth guards, so everyone had a custom fit one. It’s provided. We have like a whole carrying case that carries everyone’s mouth guards, and they can do live tracking.
It’s free for us, like we didn’t have to pay for it ’cause they want us to wear them. And then in order to get us to wear them, if you have to go off for an HIA, which is a head injury assessment, they can use your mouth guard data to help with that or like confirm things. But say you’re not wearing it and you go off for an HIA, they make it so you cannot return to the game whether you’re concussed or not.
So they’re not making it so you have to wear it, but if you don’t wear it, you’re not allowed to go back on if there’s any sort of questioning about a head injury. So everyone on our team, like I always wear a mouth guard anyways. I even wear it in like a grab game, ’cause things happen and it’s always just like when accidents happen, or like, I don’t know, even if a ball comes flying.
It’s more so when you’re not expecting things, I find for me that things happen more. It’s like a double tackle. But anyways, I don’t know if the mouth guards are in league or not. And I know for fifteens they’re having it too, but I don’t know that that’s for like the World Cup. So that’s still international, which is kind of equivalent to the Sevens.
And then they have like the red chip lighting up too. So I think it’s actually being trialed for the very first time for the Women’s World Cup this summer, which is this month. So I mean, if you wanna tune in, you can maybe check it out. I wanna see what it actually looks like to light up ’cause the ones that we wore didn’t light up—it was just like data that was collected over time.
I don’t know what all leagues use it yet, but I think they want to implement it in most rugby. Even like wearing mouth guards, and like some people on our team hate it ’cause they are a bit bulkier also ’cause of the chip in it.
Advice to Others:
Even if I were to give myself advice, it’s even hard to follow ’cause you know the logical answer, but then feelings get involved. So I’d say try to keep the feelings from affecting what’s most logical for your return, which is usually resting more.
Especially with sports, you don’t wanna just do nothing also. So you still want a bit of stimulus. You don’t just wanna bed rot. I’d say like you still want a life, but you also don’t wanna rush back into sports.
So the advice would be: sit out of sports when you’re actually having symptoms, but also try not to rush back because of how you feel with regards to, “Oh, I’m missing out” or “I really wanna play” or “This is my identity.”
There’s more to life than sport and playing, and that’s your health. So that would be my advice—not to rush back in. Listen to yourself, the signs, not to justify certain symptoms as other things.
Like, it’s easy. I remember being on a flight being like, “Oh, I just, I always get motion sickness, so that’s what it is.” But it’s like, no—try not to justify. Assess it. And obviously there is a hit, and it’s not just motion sickness or something from the plane.