Jason White, has had an illustrious career with Scotland, earning 77 caps and captaining the team on 19 occasions. His journey through the sport, having played for Glasgow Warriors, Sale Sharks, and ASM Clermont Auvergne, provides a deep understanding of rugby’s evolution. Jason shares his thoughts on head trauma in rugby, a critical issue that has increasingly come under scrutiny and shares his own experience and thoughts on the issue.
During your career what was your personal experience with head injuries?
So I had quite a few times where I would’ve said I had concussive symptoms and probably
played it down. Get the physio on, get the smelling salts and try and continue. I probably had
three or four definite concussions where I had extended periods of time out. The worst one
was probably Scotland versus Fiji a long time ago back in 2002 where I was off for probably
about six weeks or so. So yes I have quite a lot of personal experience with head injuries.
How has your awareness of concussion symptoms changed over the course of your career?
So I’ve obviously been retired for a long time. My awareness of the symptoms did improve, I
finished my career in France where at that point they were much further behind compared to
the UK. I played most of my club rugby in Manchester with Sale and there was baseline
testing. There was none of that at all in France. I don’t actually know where they are with
their testing currently in the Top 14, but through the national program with Scotland and
James Robson they were good.
Do you think current governing bodies are doing enough to protect players from head injuries?
I think now it is considerably better, although there is a worry that they can return within a
week. When I was playing it was 21 days. I’m clearly not a qualified medical person, but I
think that it is so much better to have a mandatory step down period rather than being
tested. The good thing is that there is testing going on to determine whether somebody is
able to come back within a shorter time frame. So I think it has improved.
Do you think the growing awareness of head injuries will change the way rugby is played in the future?
I think it makes everyone more aware, for those of us working in the education sector and
dealing with young people. I’m certainly aware of “having doubts sit them out”, and making
sure we look after players. I think parents are much more aware of it with the increased
exposure with the signage. We see many more kids who are not as keen to take part. Some
of it comes through the parents, some of it comes through there being a history of dementia
in their families and as a result they don’t want people to take part.