Injury Event and Time of Injury
Table 4 summarises the range of estimates for the distribution of match injuries by the inciting event.
Table 4. Documented distribution of injuries by inciting event
Injury Type |
Proportion of match injuries (%) |
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Overall |
Backs |
Forwards |
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Nature of Onset |
Acute | 75 to 100% | 65 to 100% | 85 to 100 % |
| Gradual Onset | 0 to 25% | 0 to 35% | 0 to 15% | |
Cause of Onset |
Contact | 50 to 100% | 67 to 100% | 50 to 100% |
| Non-contact | 0 to 50% | 0 to 33% | 0 to 50% | |
Inciting Event |
Tackling | 13 to 60% | 12 to 38% | 0 to 33% |
| Tackled | 28 to 45% | 25 to 56% | 25 to 67% | |
| Collision | 7 to 20% | 6 to 23% | 0 to 25% | |
| Running | 7 to 20% | 6 to 25% | 0 to 18% | |
| Ruck | 3 to 16% | 0 to 13% | 0 to 19% | |
Most match injuries in elite women’s rugby are acute in nature, with a slightly higher contribution among forwards than backs (Fuller and Taylor, 2022; 2022c; 2025)). Among the acute injuries, contact events account for the majority with marginally greater frequency among back than forwards (Fuller and Taylor, 2021b; 2024; 2024d; 2026). The tackle situation is a key area of interest, with tackling and being tackled reported most as the most frequent inciting events for injury (Fuller and Taylor, 2017; 2024; 2025; Starling et al., 2023). Other contact events that are commonly recorded for injury include collisions and the ruck (Fuller and Taylor, 2017; 2024c; 2024d). Running has been reported as the most common non-contact injury event (Fuller and Taylor, 2022b; 2025). The distribution of injuries also appears to be similar between forwards and backs (Fuller and Taylor, 2022; 2024d).
The distribution of injuries during rugby 15s matches indicates that 30-80% of injuries occur during the final quarter (between 61-80+ minutes (Fuller and Taylor, 2022; 2024)), with fewer injuries (8-21%) reported during the first quarter of matches (between 0-20 minutes (Fuller and Taylor, 2022; 2025b)). Similar distributions have been observed between the second (21-40+ minutes) and third quarters (41-60 minutes) of matches (0-30% (Fuller and Taylor, 2024; 2025b)). Between positional groups, substantially more injuries for both forwards and backs occur during the second half of matches (66-67% (Fuller and Taylor, 2026).
Similarly to rugby 15s, a greater proportion of injuries were sustained during the second half of matches in rugby 7s (50-71% (Fuller and Taylor, 2024d; Fuller et al., 2017)). Similar distributions of injury between the first and second half have been observed for backs (first half 32-67%; second half 33-68%), while a heavier proportion of injuries suffered during the second half have been demonstrated for forwards (first half 20-50%; second half 50-80% (Fuller and Taylor, 2024b; 2024c)).