The ‘George North’ debate has a southern hemisphere cousin.
Otago Highlanders prop Josh Hohneck was knocked unconscious in his team’s Super Rugby clash with Crusaders, at the weekend.
TV viewers watched the KO collision and assumed Hohneck’s day was done. 10 minutes later, however, and he was back on the pitch.
Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph told One News, ‘He’s the only player I can remember who’s passed those protocols mid-game, so he’s gone through a rigorous set of tests since then. He’s all good.’
Concussion passed Super Rugby’s equivalent of Ireland’s Head Injury Assessment [HIA], which is a serious of cognitive and memory tests designed to ascertain if a player has suffered a serious head blow.
Joseph added, ‘The protocols say if a player takes a knock they go off, have a breather, they take 10 minutes, they answer a set of questions which are pretty tough, I understand.’ The test is not fool-proof, however.
Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray passed the HIA, during a match against Australia in November 2014, only to show signs of concussion two days later.
Hohneck passed follow-up tests, this week, and will play on Saturday, against Auckland Blues, in Dunedin.
The Highlanders coach does not feel video reviews, and replays, are needed to help assess concussion and head blows. Rather bizarrely, he said, ‘I know when there’s a car crash no one looks for the CCTV, they go and care for the people who are sitting in the middle of the field, that’s exactly what our people did.’
Blues coach John Kirwan disagrees. He told Stuff, ‘The grey area is when they pass their test and they go back on and [symptoms] come on later.
‘I don’t think anyone’s trying to do the wrong thing, we just need to make sure we get better at it.’
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