Rugby Canada looking to expand blue card concussion protocol across Canada

Rugby Canada is poised to expand access to a program aimed at making it easier to track players after they've been removed from the field with a suspected concussion.

The blue card program has been piloted in rugby games in Ontario since 2019, with match officials handing the card to a player who's showing signs or symptoms of a concussion. The process can be initiated by anyone at the field of play, such as teammates, trainers or coaches.

Officials are required to include the details of the card in their match report. That information is filtered into a database that adds a flag to the player's name, preventing them from being added to a new game sheet until they've gone through a return-to-play process, which involves being seen by a doctor or nurse practitioner.

It comes more than a decade after the death of 17-year-old Rowan Stringer, a rugby player who died from second impact syndrome following multiple head injuries in the span of a week in 2013. 

Rugby Canada plans to expand the blue card program to other provinces next year, with the goal of eventually having it implemented across the country.

Rugby Canada knew it had to learn from Rowan's death to try to make the sport safer, according to Jackie Tittley, the sport organization's manager of training and education.

"[The blue card program] gives us a better ability to track and monitor those players and ensure that they get the care that they need and the clearance that they need to safely return to our game," she told CBC Sports.

The program was created after Ontario passed a law in Rowan's name five years ago, following years of advocacy on concussion safety and awareness from Rowan's family.

Rowan's Law makes it mandatory for young athletes, parents, coaches,