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Editorial
Call to action: a collaborative framework to better support female rugby league players
  1. Cloe Cummins1,2,3,
  2. Jaede Melinz1,
  3. Doug King1,4,5,
  4. Colin Sanctuary1,6,
  5. Aron Murphy1
  1. 1 School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
  2. 2 Institute for Sport Physical Activity and Leisure, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
  3. 3 National Rugby League, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  4. 4 Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand (SPRINZ), Auckland University of Technology Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland, New Zealand
  5. 5 Traumatic Brain Injury Network (TBIN), Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
  6. 6 New South Wales Rugby League, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Cloe Cummins, School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia; ccummin5{at}une.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-101403

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    The rise of women’s rugby league

    Women’s sports have seen a substantial increase in participation numbers and in their professionalism. There was a 29% increase in the number of Australian women who played rugby league in 20181 and there have been increased competition pathways for women in both Australia (ie, National Rugby League Women’s (NRLW) premiership) and England (ie, Women’s Super League (WSL)).

    Although female sporting teams and leagues struggle with participation, financial investment and spectatorship (ie, sociological factors),2 both the NRLW and WSL have major naming right sponsors. The Australian NRLW and State of Origin matches and the WSL grand final are also broadcast live on television.

    An evidence-base for managing the performance and well-being of female rugby league players

    There is a paucity of sports science, clinical and medical literature on female rugby league players (n=8 articles; Scopus, July 2019). We attribute this to factors such as, participation numbers, limited years of professional women’s rugby league (ie, 2 years in Australia and 3 years in England) and a number of complex sociological factors. Much of the published research is outdated. Indeed the available injury surveillance research3 is over 10 years old and the types and rates of injuries reported do not reflect the increased participation and professionalism of women’s rugby league today.

    The lack of current literature in the applied female setting raises the question — ‘In practice are female athletes being developed, trained and managed by findings elucidated from male-dominated academic literature?’ Such practice would be concerning.4 Female athletes are 1.5 times more likely to sustain an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury5 and may be at a greater risk of incurring mild traumatic brain injuries (eg, concussion)6 when compared with male athletes. Importantly, hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle may contribute to changes in injury-risk and performance.7

    There is a need to further understand and develop scientific-support in training female rugby league players (eg, content and progression), appropriate illness and injury management (eg, rehabilitation and prevention) and physiology (eg, hormonal factors). Recent interview-based work supports the importance of such knowledge and access to high-quality support staff in women’s rugby league.2

    Call to action

    One of the major challenges in increasing the evidence-base for female rugby league players is the comparative lack of physiological, training, injury and illness surveillance data. The Australian female elite competition (NRLW) has relatively few teams (n=4) and competition matches (n=3-rounds, excluding the grand final) within a season, when compared with the male competition (National Rugby League (NRL); n=16-teams; n=25-rounds, including one bye-round and excluding finals). The NRLW is in its second year of competition, compared with the NRL which has data gathered over a 21 year period. The NRLW therefore, yields fewer exposures to collect data related to load (eg, microtechnology and rate of perceived exertion), screening (eg, illness and injury surveillance), testing (eg, clinical and non-clinical) and sports psychology.

    Developing an evidence-base for female rugby league players requires a genuine and effective collaboration between industry, academia, funding bodies and journals. We call for:

    1. Industry (ie, applied practitioners) and academia (ie, researchers) to collaborate across teams and countries (eg, the NRLW and WSL) to increase the evidence-base of publishable data and enhance scientific-support for the high-performance management of female rugby league players. In Australia, such an initiative could be led by the NRLW.

    2. More research: Descriptive-based or observational-based case-studies may appear outdated (ie, replication of previous male-based research)4 however, such research is essential to develop applied research with direct and current translation to female rugby league players. An annual conference focussed on women’s rugby league with published proceedings is essential.

    3. Funding bodies and organisations have an opportunity and responsibility to engage with and financially support research which focuses on female athletes.

    4. Although, there has been a trend towards increasing the available literature and understanding of female-specific physiology and performance,8 there is a considerable dearth of knowledge and research in this space. As such, there is an opportunity for academic journals to run special editions focussed on female rugby league players.

    We propose an international summit to develop a consensus statement centred on these points. Until industry, academia, funding bodies and journals work together to challenge and change the current research landscape through disseminating both descriptive-based and observational-based research on female rugby league players, collectively, we are failing to progress an evidence-based framework to develop female athletes.

    References

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      . Contestation, disruption and legitimization in women’s rugby league. Sport Soc 2019;27:1–33.doi:10.1080/17430437.2019.1631803
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      2. King D ,
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      . Injuries in a national women's rugby League tournament: an initial investigation. NZ J Sports Med 2007;34:18.
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      . The challenge of applying and undertaking research in female sport. Sports Med Open 2019;5:51.doi:10.1186/s40798-019-0224-x
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      . "What's my risk of sustaining an ACL injury while playing sports?" A systematic review with meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med 2019;53:1003–12.doi:10.1136/bjsports-2016-096274
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      2. Dick RW
      . Is there a gender difference in concussion incidence and outcomes? Br J Sports Med 2009;43 Suppl 1:i46–50.doi:10.1136/bjsm.2009.058172
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      2. Chidi-Ogbolu N ,
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      . Effect of estrogen on musculoskeletal performance and injury risk. Front Physiol 2018;9:1834.doi:10.3389/fphys.2018.01834
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      2. Mujika I ,
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      . Sport science on women, women in sport science. Int J Sports Physiol Perform 2019;14:1013–4.doi:10.1123/ijspp.2019-0514
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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @cloecummins, @ColinSanctuary

    • Contributors According to the definition given by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the authors listed above qualify for authorship based on making one or more of the substantial contributions to the intellectual content of: (i) conception and design (CC and AM); and/or (ii) acquisition of data (CC, JM and CS); and/or (iii) analysis and interpretation of data (CC, JM, CS and AM); and/or (iv) participated in drafting of the manuscript (CC, JM, DK and CS) and/or (v) critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content (CC, JM, DK, CS and AM).

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests The National Rugby League provided support in the form of research funding for CC. The National Rugby League did not have any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. CS holds the position of player development manager at New South Wales Rugby League.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.