2023-09-08 20:19:56
On December 12, 2018, Nicolas Chauvin, 20, died in Bordeaux hospital after a double tackle which occurred during a rugby match. For more than four years, his father, Philippe, has been waging a constant battle. In memory of his son, he asks that things change and that the safety and health of players be priorities.
That day, the match took place normally, he said in an interview with Radio-Canada Sports. At a certain point, Nicolas is hit by a first tackler, then by a second who hits him in the head and who arrives at 20 km/hour, therefore leaving him no chance. Nicolas collapses, he goes into cardiac arrest, because there is spinal shock; the spinal cord is affected.
After 20 minutes, emergency services managed to resuscitate the athlete and took him to the emergency room of a Bordeaux hospital, where he was operated on and stabilized in his spinal column. Below the neck, no organ is functioning.
I found my son in intensive care, intubated and on a respirator, in a coma, explains Philippe Chauvin. We never saw Nicolas again in a normal capacity, because lo and behold: he died on the field. The brain damage was such that it was no longer life-threatening.
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Rugby player Nicolas Chauvin
Photo: Éditions du Rocher
To mourn the loss of his son, Philippe Chauvin wrote a book with a powerful title, Rugby – Dying is part of the gamepublished by Éditions du Rocher in April 2023.
It was voluntary. You’ll notice there’s no punctuation; we can therefore interpret as we wish. Of course not, dying is not part of the game of rugby. In fact, it is the absence of answers, which I never obtained from the former president of the French rugby federation, from the referees who imply that there was no mistake. So, if there was no foul, that means dying is part of the game.
We don’t go onto a field to hurt another, and even less to die. My title was there to throw a wrench in the pond, because everyone considered that it was part of the game, it was part of the number of people you could lose.
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Philippe Chauvin, father of Nicolas
Photo : afp via getty images / BERTRAND GUAY
We cried at the funeral, and now we’re going to move on. And then he will eventually run out of steam. They didn’t understand, they didn’t guess that I would go so far as to write a book to stir all this up a little.
Is dying part of the game? Should we protect cheaters? Should we turn a blind eye to extremely dangerous behavior that endangers both others and this sport? Because, at some point, when we have too many concussions, we will end up stopping.
Today, Philippe Chauvin has the feeling of being heard. He was recently received by the French Minister of Sports and the president of the rugby federation. That day, he had a clear message to convey.
Rugby is above all a team sport, a collective sport, a sport of commitment, a sport where we must be loyal to others. May the best win, but respecting the rules, and cheaters, those who are violent, have no place in this sport. We have to scold these people, we have to take them out and say that there is zero tolerance! There is an article in the regulations: rule 9, paragraph 11 of World Rugby, and it must be respected. This is why I insisted that it be imposed on all those responsible for this sport.
Philippe Chauvin refers to this passage in the rules of the international federation which stipulates that players must not do anything which is reckless or dangerous for others.
Is the maxim that has always referred to rugby, a sport of thugs played by gentlemen, still up to date?
Men destroyed
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Cover of the book by Jean Chazal
Photo : Solar
French neurosurgeon Jean Chazal knows the world of rugby well. Over the years, he has seen several professional players pass through his operating room. His findings are damning and illustrate the potential danger of this sport. To denounce the abuses of rugby, he also wrote a book with a rather evocative title: This rugby that kills, published by Éditions Solar in 2019. He also spoke to Radio-Canada Sports.
At the beginning of 2018, I issued an alert and said that one day there will be a death on the ground; If this violence continues in the professional era, one day there will be a death on the field. And there were four deaths in 2018 in France.
I kept this title, because not only were we killing this sport, but we were destroying men and I had, until then, never seen men destroyed in their brains. Over the years, we have gone from a sport of strategic combat to a sport of violent combat, without rules.
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New Zealand player Derren Witcombe injured during match
Photo : Getty Images / Ross Land
To clearly understand what today’s rugby players have become, the neurosurgeon does not hesitate to talk about augmented men.
That is to say, they are bigger, stronger, but the bone structure remains that of a man. It’s like putting a 1000 horsepower engine in a normal car; the bodywork will not hold, given the power of the engine.
Creatine and other products are responsible for these unusual muscles. Creatine can be found in eggs or chicken, but in doses of 2 to 3 g. Today, players are prescribed 30 to 40 g per day. They gain 7 kg (15 lb) of muscle per month. I know this because I have operated on more than twenty international players for neck injuries and rested them for a month. They all lost 7 kg, and they all gained that 7 kg back when they were allowed to return to the game.
They allowed themselves to increase the size of the players; “they”, that is to say the instances, the coachs, the doctors. The doctors are at fault too. And finally, it gives shows, a bit like circus games. It’s a sport that made me dream, but dreaming of dying or getting injured for a game is unacceptable.
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Laurent Bénézech with the French team, in 1994
Photo : Getty Images / Anton Want
Laurent Bénézech is a former French international. He had 19 caps for the French team and participated in the World Cup in 1995, in South Africa, where France finished 3rd. Since his retirement, he has denounced the abuses of his sport. A few years ago, he decided to break the code of silence by publicly denouncing institutionalized doping, which caused him to suffer the wrath of his community. Radio-Canada Sports was able to see that his fight is far from over.
To limit the number of concussions, we should first focus on the physical disarmament of players.
Rugby can be spectacular without having players weighing 140 kg (308 lbs) or 100 kg (220 lbs), but running the 100m in just 10 seconds. Individuals who are 1.90 m tall and weigh 120 to 130 kg (265 to 287 lbs) and who are capable of repeating significant efforts with extreme explosiveness for 80 minutes, you will only find them on rugby fields . We cannot repeat these efforts indefinitely; chemical aid is therefore required to achieve this.
During the World Cup which will begin on Friday, Laurent Bénézech will be an analyst for the French media. If he expects great enthusiasm, he also fears the worst.
I have a fear which, I hope, will not be justified: that we will unfortunately have a live accident which will be dramatic given the intensity of the shocks.
Concussions on trial
Over the past two years, several hundred former French or English professional players have filed class action suits against their federation. Most say they suffer from disorders caused by repeated impacts to the head. They accuse the leaders of having been deaf to their requests to bring more security to their sport.
Some attempted suicide; others were less lucky, dying during a match, or even prematurely.
Among the plaintiffs, we find the Briton Steve Thompson, world champion in 2003 with the XV de la Rose; Canadian Jamie Cudmore; Welsh international Alix Popham; Carl Hayman, former right pillar of the All Blacks…
In England, the law firm Rylands Garth represents more than 200 players. Our research shows that 400 players died prematurely in the last 10 years, and it was due to brain damage, says lawyer Richard Boardman.
In France, lawyers Foucauld Prache and Nino Arnaud are leading the class action by around twenty former players against the French Rugby Federation and the French professional league. Reached in Paris, the two lawyers had a lot to say about the silence of the rugby authorities. Foucauld Prache details the pursuit.
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A South African player lying on the pitch
Photo: afp via getty images / WIKUS DE WET
What the French Federation and the league are criticized for is, on the one hand, a failure to fulfill their safety obligation, particularly in terms of the risks of concussions on the health of the players, and a failure on their obligation of information on the specific risks linked to concussions, he explains to Radio-Canada Sports. From the moment we identified the risks linked to these concussions, there should have been a whole insurance component which should have been put in place by these entities, to take charge and cover the various damages.
When we talk about safety, we talk about return to play times, which are too short, and the medical monitoring of players, which is not thorough enough, he continues. And the last aspect is the lack of assistance for all these players who are victims of concussions who today, for the most part, suffer from neurodegenerative diseases. To date, authorities have only responded that player safety is at the heart of their concerns.
His colleague Nino Arnaud explains what his clients are experiencing, including former Canadian international Jamie Cudmore.
Some have told us that their life expectancy is limited and that the countdown has begun, says Nino Arnaud. These are players who cannot concentrate for more than a few hours a day, who will have supersensitivity to light, noises, sounds and fatigue, who, as a result, will no longer be able to stand being in the same room as their own children. We have clients who can spend entire days in the dark in their room. We have players who have distant or immediate memory problems. Some may forget their children when they leave school; another no longer remembers having participated in a World Cup…
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Jamie Cudmore with Canada
Photo : Getty Images / Michael Steele
In Quebec, as in Canada, there have been very few cases of serious injuries in rugby. The general director of Rugby Québec, Hugo Montérémal, who is also a former professional player, explains the reasons.
Compared to some countries, we were lucky not to have any deaths or even serious disabling injuries, he explains. In fact, we were lucky in a way, because we are a sport that has taken responsibility in relation to concussions. Canada is far ahead in this area, particularly in Quebec, where the concussion protocol has been constructed in a multi-sport manner.
I am confident about the future of this sport, because by setting a good example for younger generations, a shift could take place.
The World Cup will begin on Friday at the Stade de France. The host country will then face New Zealand. For more than a month, the greatest oval ball nations will compete. For the first time in its history, the Canadian XV will not be in the competition.
When we ask Philippe Chauvin, the bereaved father, if he will still watch the World Cup, his answer is full of emotion: Yes, certainly, but with extreme sensitivity. Extreme sensitivity.
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