Document is current

Article History

Accepted: 1 May 2025

First Online: 19 June 2025

Declarations

:

: Funding for this study as part of New Zealand Rugby’s National Concussion Strategy was provided by World Rugby, the NZ Rugby Foundation and the Accident Compensation Corporation through the RugbySmart program.

: D.S. and J.R. were employed by NZ Rugby during the conduct of this study. D.S. was employed by World Rugby and is currently employed by International Rugby Players. J.R. is currently employed by NZ Rugby. M.B. has worked as an independent contractor on NZ Rugby research projects since 2019. J.B. has received research and travel funding and part of his salary from World Rugby.

: The datasets analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

: The study was performed in accordance with the standards of ethics outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval to conduct the research was obtained from the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee (approval number 18/087) to conduct this project.

: All participants provided written informed consent. Parental consent was obtained for players 15 years or younger.

: M.B., D.S., J.R. and S.W. and were involved in conceptualising the overall study design. M.B. was responsible for analysis of the data with input from all authors. All authors were responsible for the interpretation of the analysis. All authors were involved in editing drafts of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version.

: Not applicable.

: Not applicable.