Jonny Holland: Nic White controversy shows HIA decisions must be taken out of players' hands

Ireland finished off a successful Autumn series against a very dogged and physically confrontational Australian side. Yet the victory was once again, unfortunately, marred with talk of concussion in rugby and the alleged mismanagement of Nic White.

I look at concussion a lot differently now than what I did as a player. You'll hear many ex-professionals speaking about their own personal experiences with concussion.

Some speak to it as a badge of bravado to explain how the game is gone soft and how it went in their day. Others speak about their increased levels of respect for the HIA and concussion protocols because as time goes on we learn more and more about how repeated trauma can affect your life during or after rugby.

I’ve had some concussions. One as an 18-year-old, knocked out cold from a non-malicious tackle but a sobering experience quite early in my career. There was no arguing with that, three weeks on the sideline as a standard protocol and back without much of a reintroduction.

I felt fine, I was allowed back to training and ironically I don’t remember much more of a fuss being made afterwards.

I had a second properly diagnosed concussion as a professional player, and for one reason or another I don’t recall when or where it happened, I just remember the return to play protocol, failing it a handful of times, seeing a specialist and pulling through okay after five weeks.

Luckily, there was nothing major going on and I returned without any issues after an extended period of rest. I was that bit older for this concussion and it made me respect the process a lot more.

I had felt the side-effects of not being able to just shrug off the symptoms. Lingering headaches during any intense conversation and the first step of