Match official experiences with the Blue Card protocol in amateur rugby: implementing Rowan’s Law for concussion management

ABSTRACT

The Blue Card protocol was introduced to domestic amateur rugby competitions to bring Rugby Canada into compliance with provincial concussion legislation. The Blue Card protocol formalises how match officials can remove an athlete with a suspected concussion from play and prevents athletes from returning to sport without medical clearance. This exploratory study examined the experiences of Canadian rugby match officials with the novel Blue Card process. Semi-structured interviews conducted with six Canadian rugby match officials were subjected to Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Findings revealed interpersonal (e.g. stakeholder collaboration and peer support) and intrapersonal (e.g. concerns about personal liability and comfort with the administration of the Blue Card) factors related to the successful implementation of concussion management protocols. Match officials distinguished actions from members of the rugby community as either supporting (e.g. information sharing) or actively resisting (e.g. questioning match official decisions regarding the Blue Card) efforts to implement the Blue Card protocol. Those who had personal experience removing an athlete from play due to a suspected concussion or who administered a Blue Card during the 2019 season reported feeling more comfortable with the process than less experienced peers. However, in this early policy implementation phase, 50% of participants expressed concerns about their personal liability associated with the Blue Card process. Implications for the design and implementation of sport-related concussion research and policy at the amateur level are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport-related concussion
• injury management
• sport policy
• referee
• community sport
• rugby union

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to extend their sincerest thanks to the match officials who dedicated their time to participate in this study as well as Rugby Canada and Rugby Ontario for promoting the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).