Gregor Townsend's commendable actions a step forward for player welfare

While Ireland marched to another convincing Six Nations win on Sunday, their victory over Scotland left Gregor Townsend with a management dilemma.

Two of Townsend's star backs clashed heads and had to be removed from the field of play under the Head Injury Assessment (HIA) guidelines. The clash involved their attacking leader Finn Russell and one of their leading try scorers Darcy Graham, who collided during an attempted tackle.

It was Graham that came out of it worse, forced to leave on a stretcher, while Russell was removed and subsequently passed his HIA.

The out-half was deemed fit to continue, but Scottish management used their own judgement to deem their talisman unfit to continue.

Quotes attributed to Townsend suggest that Russell had some gaps in his memory from the game itself.

It was a commendable decision from Townsend. The hosts were already under pressure and with only two backs on the bench, it meant he would have to play his whole hand in removing both players from the pitch.

He was also down another star back when Duhan van der Merwe was sent to the sin bin for interfering with Calvin Nash as he kicked ahead towards the try line.

For Townsend to be aware enough to make the right decision is one thing, for him to do it when he was under pressure in a Test match and wouldn’t have been going against the medical guidelines is another thing completely.

As a coach, I’ve come across these moments.

Player welfare is of utmost importance. You sometimes have to remind yourself that there is a much bigger picture and regardless of what the outcome is, it’s only a game.

It cannot be misrepresented as much more than that when head injuries and brain trauma come into play. If we want the game of rugby to survive the modern