Injury Warriors Injury Thread 2023

[mt.wellington]

Warriors Injury Thread 2023

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Bringing you our annual injury ward thread. The club arent as active with injury news as they use to be but hopefully we can still keep this thread ticking over with media reports, club news and other outlets like NRL Physio on Twitter and Facebook...

 

[mt.wellington]

Last injury news from the club before the last game of the 2022 season...​

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Injury Report: Calf injury rules Johnson out of final match​

Richard Becht & photosport.nz
Fri 2 Sep 2022, 11:25 AM

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Halfback Shaun Johnson has joined Marcelo Montoya and Rocco Berry in being ruled out of the Vodafone Warriors' final match of the season against Gold Coast at Mount Smart Stadium tomorrow.

The 31-year-old veteran was named in the side on Tuesday in the hope he would recover from a calf strain that saw him replaced at halftime in last Friday night's match against Penrith.

However, Johnson was withdrawn from the line-up today with Daejarn Asi coming into the halves alongside Chanel Harris-Tavita. Both players will be making their final appearances for the club.

Montoya and Berry were ruled out on Wednesday.

The knee contusion that forced Montoya out of last Friday night's match against Penrith has been limiting his training intensity.

Edward Kosi moves from the extended bench to take Montoya's place on the left wing.

Berry, who was set to return to the NRL side after a lengthy absence, has a toe sprain which prevented him warming up and training today.

Viliami Vailea has been brought back into the side from outside the original squad to again start in the centres.

Also out with an injury picked up in training is centre-winger Adam Pompey. Named on the extended bench, he has been replaced by hooker Taniela Otukolo.

Montoya, Berry and Pompey join Jazz Tevaga, Bayley Sironen and Ronald Volkman who have all missed the last phase of the campaign with season-ending injuries.

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Other players who missed last Friday night’s match against Penrith or picked up knocks in the contest have all been cleared for Saturday’s encounter.

Second Jack Murchie (hip sprain) is named on the extended bench and Wayde Egan (back spasms) is back at hooker while halfback Shaun Johnson and Eliesa Katoa are also available.

Johnson was replaced at halftime in the Penrith match due to a calf complaint while Katoa was in discomfort in the second half but played all but the last seven minutes of the game and is back on deck for the season finale.

Also returning is back rower Euan Aitken, who missed the Penrith trip for personal reasons, and centre Jesse Arthars who has been side-lined for a number of weeks with a quad injury and then recovering from a virus.

Injury Report: Calf injury rules Johnson out of final match

Halfback Shaun Johnson has been ruled out of Vodafone Warriors' final match of the season.

www.warriors.kiwi

 

[wizards rage]

Interesting changes around head injuries from union and is this foreshadowing how league could end up? It will be an interesting watch to see if an unintended consequence is a more open attacking game?

From July 1, the UK community game will see tacklers able only to tackle from the waist down. The RFU quoted studies that higher contact on the ball carrier and closer proximity of the ball carrier and tacklers’ heads are associated with larger head impacts — and increased risk of concussion.

“Lowering the height of the tackle and encouraging the tackler to bend more at the waist will minimise the risk of this occurring while maintaining the tackle as an integral part of the game,” the RFU statement said.

“Ball carriers will also be encouraged to follow the principle of evasion, which is a mainstay of the game, to avoid late dipping and thereby avoid creating a situation where a bent tackler may be put at increased risk of head-on-head contact with the ball carrier through a late or sudden change in body height of the ball carrier.”

The principle of evasion? What does that actually mean — and how will referees and others police a change which may not be far away from becoming part of the elite game too?

The latest available data is that 29 per cent of (elite game) head injuries are suffered by the ball carrier, 71 per cent by the tackler. Mandating tackles below the waist brings the tackler into more contact with knees and hips — the two biggest culprits in tackler head injuries.

Here are some other possible effects of forcing tackle heights below the waist:

• Weaker defences, perhaps to the point where the current dominance of defence is completely overshadowed by attacks.
• Offloads, with tacklers unable to aim at the ball to jog it loose, will become more common. Some matches may produce basketball-like scores.
• Skills like the shoulder bump — when a ball carrier times a shoulder drop to bump off a tackler — will be forbidden.
• It could bring more red cards — like the one suffered by All Black prop Angus Ta’avao, sent off for improper tackle height against Ireland although it clearly seemed an accident. The ball carrier, Garry Ringrose, changed direction at the last moment, a factor in the head-to-head collision. How will that scenario fit into the “principle of evasion”?
• The roundly disliked rolling maul may become an even more common way of scoring tries, though it could go the other way if teams see more profit in getting the ball wide.
• It could open the door for more smaller players, with more emphasis on evasion rather than brute strength.

There’s more; the new laws in the UK’s next rugby season will be carefully watched.

Rugby's 'new normal': Why unpopular change in the sport is inevitable

OPINION: Rugby is heading towards “a new normal”.

www.nzherald.co.nz

 

[Defence]

The wind is blowing against contact sports.

 

[mt.wellington]

Something has to be done. These 'sports' are businesses that risk getting sued into the ground unless they start covering their arses now. Where does it end though? Have them playing in Zorbs???

 

[Gizzyfan]

Something has to be done. These 'sports' are businesses that risk getting sued into the ground unless they start covering their arses now. Where does it end though? Have them playing in Zorbs???

The big problem is the cumulative effect of high hits. Where are the controls at trainings. The other one in Union that is really dangerous IMO is clearing out players at second phase.?

 

[wizards rage]

The big problem is the cumulative effect of high hits. Where are the controls at trainings. The other one in Union that is really dangerous IMO is clearing out players at second phase.?

In the few tests I saw in the last few years, it seems to have become a game of trying to smash through defence to gain a meter or two at a time and the optimal way of running in the forwards is to get the body position as low as possible and basically leading with the head while launching yourself at defenders.

When the head is illegal to touch it seems the running style needs to be changing to a lot more upright which would allow the tackler to hit a lot lower.

Currently the defence is more a grapple, absorb the impact and lower the runner. If the runner was more upright you could ‘hit’ lower in defence. This would force the ‘evasion’ they talk about and spreading the ball if you’re driven back every time by just trying to smashing it up.

But fundamentally I don’t know if their is the space in union to be evasive?

 

[Gizzyfan]

In the few tests I saw in the last few years, it seems to have become a game of trying to smash through defence to gain a meter or two at a time and the optimal way of running in the forwards is to get the body position as low as possible and basically leading with the head while launching yourself at defenders.

When the head is illegal to touch it seems the running style needs to be changing to a lot more upright which would allow the tackler to hit a lot lower.

Currently the defence is more a grapple, absorb the impact and lower the runner. If the runner was more upright you could ‘hit’ lower in defence. This would force the ‘evasion’ they talk about and spreading the ball if you’re driven back every time by just trying to smashing it up.

But fundamentally I don’t know if their is the space in union to be evasive?

I think the problems you mention are real, and you are quite right. before they banned rucking )for safety reasons) Forwards were committed to the ruck or maul to win the ball. Generally they were not fanned across the field like now. Rucking wasn't dangerous, as long as the foot was moving backwards and not stamping.

In both codes there has to be a way to make the low tackle attractive, like a dominant tackle type call. It is a tough one.

 

[eudebrito]

Yeah union are making the Saturday casual player who isn’t sprinting out of the line for any big shots, pay for the professional game where they train 11 months of the year and the games are about winning the collisions and smashing into each other under psychotic win at all costs coaching. Kids should have different rules again, but pros is kind of at your own risk, barring the shit they used to do about telling them to harden up and get back out there of course

 

[Gizzyfan]

Yeah union are making the Saturday casual player who isn’t sprinting out of the line for any big shots, pay for the professional game where they train 11 months of the year and the games are about winning the collisions and smashing into each other under psychotic win at all costs coaching. Kids should have different rules again, but pros is kind of at your own risk, barring the shit they used to do about telling them to harden up and get back out there of course

The best rule change that came into Union was allowing players to be lifted in the lineout. Not so much because it is a spectacle in itself but because it involved those not jumping in lifting and not interfering in the opposition. Same as getting more Forwards in the rucks and mauls so the backs have room to run. As French Union poetically say it, some players move pianos. some they pianos.

 

[Defence]

 

[Boats n Hoes]

The day they start bringing waist only tackles into the NRL is the day i stop watching.

As it is i struggle with Union atm.......some of the accidental head clash and head to chest red cards do my damn head in.

 

[mt.wellington]

View attachment 50625

5 of those are Jerome Ropati and Nathaniel Roache! Im sure another 2 each are Sio Siua Taukeiaho and Glen Fisiiahi...

 

[Vancent]

5 of those are Jerome Ropati and Nathaniel Roache! Im sure another 2 each are Sio Siua Taukeiaho and Glen Fisiiahi...

I find the grouping interesting, to have three one year and nil the next, is it training drills or intensity, technique or underwhelming recovery regimes? Or do the Knoghts just not go hard enough?! 😂

 

[Cces]

I'm my understanding is right, teams under Alex Corvo had just 4 ACL's across 8 seasons.

 

[jonesy101]

Who were the others over that time, apart from the names already mentioned? Tohu Harris Harris, Bunty Afoa and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck come to mind but I can't think of who else.

 

[Cces]

Who were the others over that time, apart from the names already mentioned? Tohu Harris Harris, Bunty Afoa and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck come to mind but I can't think of who else.

Tom Ale had one in 2021
*edit* it doesn't look like it's been included because Tohu Harris also did his & we're just listed for 1. Maybe because it was after we got eliminated from the NRL.

Apart from Bunty who did theirs in 2020? Blake Green but he became a Knight first