Hey, this is Sandy. And Randy?
And we're here on AT Corner. Being an Athi trainer comes with
ups and downs, and we're here to showcase it all.
Join us as we share our world in sports medicine.
Welcome back to another episode of AT Corner.
For this week's episode we have a very exciting Co host story
episode on a sport that I feel has gained a lot of popularity
at least within the last decade just alone.
Well, I feel like the Olympics also did a really good job of
showing and just the sevens, which I learned in the last hour
of talking to Megan, that there's two different sides, the
sevens, Not two different sides, but two different.
Subtypes. Yeah, types of rugby play
styles, maybe, Yeah. For sure.
So as you can tell, since we are not the rugby experts or have a
lot of experience. We don't know the first thing
about rugby, so we are not qualified to talk about this
topic. Yes, we brought in a resident
rugby expert. There you go.
In Megan McKay, she is currently the head of medical for the
Houston Sabre Cats, which is a founding team of Major League
Rugby. She just finished her 7th season
by the way. Fun fact.
So that's men's fifteens professional rugby, but she's
also worked with women's fifteens, USA rugby.
She I'll let her do the rest of her introducing because she goes
into like what got her into it And, and really the nitty gritty
parts of rugby and even the most obvious things that we did not
know before this episode. And hopefully that if you're
interested in working rugby, if you've worked rugby, or if
that's something that you might never do, but just want to hear
about rugby, this episode's for you.
So like we said, there's a lot in this episode, but I'm going
to let Megan talk and share her favorite memory to kick us off.
Oh, that was a tough one to pick.
Rugby has a lot of unique traditions.
They're, they do a jersey presentation, so they select
someone to come in and present the jersey because there's 23
men on the field or, or women on the field if you're playing
fifteens and you have to earn that spot every week.
So it's kind of a big deal. It's just the team in there and
they invite someone in to do a jersey presentation.
And it's usually not medical staff or team manager or people
like that. But I was asked to present the
jersey and it also happened to be one of my athletes. 50th cap
match so and he was with me from the beginning of the team and he
was like one of the original players.
So that was really meaningful for me was to be able to not
only present to the whole team and and kind of tell my story
with the team having been with the team since the inception,
but also to present him his jersey for his 50th cap.
So that was really cool. And then on the flip side, post
match, if you win, they do a song that's unique to their team
and they all sing it together. And then water and things are
thrown in the locker room and it's like a big celebration.
And they found out it was my 50th cap, which I'm not a
player, I don't have to earn my jersey.
So I wasn't really paying attention to that.
But one of the other athletic trainers had asked me to count
them up and it was my 50th cap and they brought me in the
middle of that with two of the other guys who got their first
cap. And so we're in the middle of
that whole locker room celebration.
So those two moments I'd say were probably my top 2 because,
you know, it is great getting players back on the field and,
you know, these other experiences with injuries, but
those cultural experiences with the team are unique to rugby.
And so those are kind of my top 2.
They were they were kind of tied.
So I had to say both of them. Wow, that's really cool.
And look at that. We just started and I already
learned so much. Didn't know any of that existed.
So that's really cool. Kind of gave me chills.
Honestly, I was just about to say like, I'm over here, like I
have chills over. There, that seems, that seems
really special. That's really cool.
Yeah, it's really cool. It's really, really neat moment.
So I did ask on our Instagram polls this week if our listeners
have ever worked rugby and we got actually 52% of people said
yes and 48% of people said no. We so we were almost at that
half, half. But something that I noticed and
something that you and I were talking about to Megan before
this is that there's just such a difference in rugby versus some
other sports. I did have one person, Aubrey J,
who said I have a new love for rugby.
I've always had the idea that it was very similar to football.
So I kind of came in working it thinking it was like football.
They're very different even in comparison to injuries.
It was definitely something I was guilty of until seeing
sevens versus fifteens. I think fifteens is what most
people imagine rugby being related to football. 7 versus 7
is fall, 15 versus 15 is spring. It's a completely different
game. The pace is different, but not a
whole lot. I would say changes from an AT
slash injury perspective. Sevens is a much shorter game
and almost no stoppage for the entire game.
That's when I would say it could be more quote stressful for an
AT because there's so much going on.
My advice, Trust in your skills. Refer when you're certain you
cannot rule out fracture or when you can, or when you have a
concern of a concussion. Refs are very supportive of
concussion protocol and will support you.
Bizarre injuries happen all the time and it can have you
questioning what you're seeing. Learn the rules and ask
questions to ensure you're able to remove a player without
penalty. A lot of times you're doing an
eval from the sideline when the play is not over, or you're
evaluating on the field while the play continues around you if
a player is down. I did not have a rotation where
I learned rugby. I just started working per DM
through a clinic and they cover a lot of rugby so I learned a
lot from my supervisor. She then connected me with a
college team that needed an ATI. Asked the players what works for
them as far as tape and tricks go, because there's so many.
Yeah, that's really a really nice wrap up of the differences
between the two. I work primarily 15 for the
Union and it is very, very different.
Sevens is very short. It's usually tournament style
because the the matches are so short, you can do multiple in a
day and so it's very different. The one thing that is true for
rugby is they don't stop play unless it's pretty serious or
there's a natural stoppage like the ball goes out, there's a
penalty, something like that. So you have to learn how to
enter the field of play while play is going on to assess that
player and then their substitution rules for rugby.
Once you're subbed out, you're there's no re entering the match
and then the coaches have limited number of substitutions
on top of that. So you can't just sub people
because you're not sure. She mentioned sideline
evaluations. That's only happening at like
collegiate club and lower levels.
Those are not happening at professional or international
level. You're you're evaluating on
field. So like listening to you guys on
field episode was kind of funny because you know, a lot of times
you guys are like, I never do function on field.
That's all I do on field because I have to decide can you play or
not rule out emergent things or you know, deformity, that kind
of stuff. And then are you functional And
it's a quick boom, let's cut to the chase because if you're not
functional, then you're coming off.
So yeah. So it's very a good wrap up that
she mentioned about that. You know, I recommend if
anybody's first starting out to like hop on to, I don't know if
I'm allowed to plug this, but the World Rugby site has free
online education modules that you can take.
So you can learn about the game, like you can learn the rules of
the game, but then there's also a whole medical track so you can
learn that stuff. They they also offer courses
regionally that you can attend. So you know, first aid and rugby
emergency, you know, immediate care and rugby, that kind of
thing. So it it's a really good course
to help you learn how to apply your medical background to the
sport because it's very sport specific.
Wow, that is such a cool resource.
Yeah, I was going to say that's really cool that their their
world organization like offers that.
That's really dope. Yeah.
I mean, the courses and the certifications, obviously you
have to pay to go to that course and, and that's more limited and
they're only offered so often in so many cities.
But the online education for part, if you sign up and you're
looking online, you can learn that stuff and and take those
courses. How did you get into rugby?
I grew up watching it. I had a Welsh grandparent that
lived in the household with us since the time I was 6, so he
was basically like a third parent.
So I watched cricket and rugby and stuff like that, and then I
actually quit working in university athletics and got a
job and outreach hospital setting and we found out USA
Rugby was coming to town to play an international match.
We just reached out and like, hey, can we help support the
team while they're here? And then from there I've been
involved ever since. So, you know, we heard that MLR
was beginning a new professional league.
Again, just some Internet sleuthing.
Found out who was who got a meeting, you know, and, and kind
of got into it that way on the medical side.
So you know, when USA came for that first match like 10 years
ago, they, they happen to be hosting one of those courses I
mentioned. So we got into that course.
So I've been certified for level 2 since then, so for 10 years
so. Yeah, that's pretty much how I
got. Into it just, you know, a lot of
business development opportunity sleuthing when I was working
outreach, you know, trying to find a new Ave. for our hospital
clinic. Yeah, you know, it's crazy like
the like the differences that you were talking about, like I
would never do functional on the field.
I mean, unless it's like baseball, softball, cause again,
like they're it's, it depends on the substitution rule, like
where you are in the game too. But the biggest thing that I was
noticing when people were messaging was like, you just
have to know how to be on the play what or be on the field
while the play is still happening and not just like,
yeah, that's just blowing my mind.
That's crazy to me. Yeah, yeah.
How do you manage that? You learn, you learn as you go.
I'm hoping to do a presentation soon on this, but I haven't
heard so I can't talk about it, but I'm hoping to get some like
footage of like our viewpoint on the field.
So you know, in football you guys talked about that too, like
where you stand in football, Are you at the ball?
Are you behind the ball in rugby?
Someone actually did kind of a little case report on it in one
of the tournaments on like where to stand in rugby.
And it's very different from football.
So essentially no matter who's on offense or defense, you want
to stand on the offensive side. And you know, the, the field's
pretty wide too. So it's going to depend on if
you have one person covering the whole field for both teams or if
you have two people like we do in our, you know, our
professional level sport, we have two people on the sideline.
But essentially there's a certain way that you stand, so
you can constantly see into the rocks or the contacts and then
the ball, because the ball's moving backwards, right?
It's not moving forward all the time because that's a like
that's a turnover if the ball's moving forward unless it's
kicked. So it's just a very different
way of standing. But you want to stand where you
can see into the contact all the time.
But you know, one group might have gone into contact, they're
still on the ground. The ball's already moved to the
next pod, we call it, Then it's moving again.
But you still have to watch to make sure everybody's getting up
from all these pods. So and it can move really
quickly too. If there's a turnover, all of a
sudden you're sprinting down while you're scanning back
behind you to make sure everyone's getting up and coming
along. So you just kind of learn as you
go. It's helpful to get a mentor
like she said her, you know, her supervisor who'd been working
rugby really helped her talk to the athletes and the coaches.
They'll they're they're really want you to do it well because
if you don't do it well, you can interrupt their games so or you
can get hurt yourself. That's happened before to
people. So, yeah.
So I would just, you know, if you're by yourself, talk to your
athletes and your coaches and they'll kind of help you figure
that out. And the referees, especially not
in the professional level, like in the lower levels, if you go
meet them in your medical timeout, that kind of thing, and
just say, hey, man, I'm new to this.
Like you just wave me on. Like they'll help guide you a
lot because they know a lot of athletic trainers only work at
PRN or something like that. So they know that they don't
really know the sport, right. But you just learn.
I'm still stuck on the idea that you said one person covering
both sides. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, when I first started it was that way because, you know,
it was a start up league. It's like the MLS year 1, you
know what I mean? We just didn't have the, the
staffing and the, and the finances and the rules yet.
So the first couple seasons I was by myself and it it's pretty
brutal because the field is huge.
It's a soccer field, so it's a lot.
I could imagine. A lot, yeah.
I I don't run because I'm not a runner, but on average I put in
from the medical time out, which is 1/2 hour before kick off to
the end of the match I put in about four miles.
Wow, holy smokes. Yeah, that's a, that's an
average. It depends on the field, you
know, some are not regulation size here in the US and that
kind of thing. It depends on how fast the game
is going or not, but that's about the average.
That actually kind of leads into this one from Colby.
T says be prepared to cover 7 to 12 miles per game of movement,
which is an internal study Megan and I were looking into.
Don't be surprised having play happen around you and literally
have to lay on top to protect athletes during play as action
does not stop unless severe. If it's obviously severe enough
to the official unconsciousness being the most common, they will
stop play. But like said, he has to be like
blatantly obvious that the that the emergency care is needed to
take place for them to stop. Medical rarely makes the
decision to stop the matches. It could be seen as an unfair
advantage to the other team to halt play in a sense or give up
a scoring opportunity due to a minor injury.
Oh, interesting. Yeah, so excuse me.
So in our league, we can't enter the field of play when when a
team is in the attacking 22 because if I if a guy goes down,
he's like, Oh my shoulder and I go into play while the other
teams trying to score, that could be seen as interference
for that. So like Colby said, unless it's
this guy is out cold on the field and we need to protect the
player, they're not going to stop.
So in that instance you do, you just have to wait and be like,
you're going to have to wait a minute.
So or if the, you know, if the play moves on and it goes the
other way, or if someone gets it out of bounds or they call down
a penalty for a scrum or something like that, then you
can go in. But if it's still moving and the
game is still going, you're not going in.
Wow, that's interesting. I I'm still trying to wrap my
head around that. That's.
I don't know where Colby got 7 to 12 miles, though, because my
field's bigger than anybody's field and I was averaging like
4, so I don't know what he was doing.
Well, I think he was talking about the the is he is he
talking about? Mostly the athletes, I guess he
was saying, I don't know, it sounds like he referenced cause
him and I were doing kind of doing a pilot study on like like
physio, like what we put in because we're not just sitting
on a golf cart at a soccer game or on the sideline of football
just moving 20 yards back and forth or whatever.
So we were curious and there was no research out there.
So we were kind of piloting that.
That'd be that would be a pretty cool study actually.
Yeah, we were. I don't know, We might still
publish it, but we, you know, there's a small data point and
all. That's what we'll see.
We're still talking to have it. I like it.
That'd be cool to do. Like all the sports, you know,
like baseball and softball, you're just going to sit in one
spot. Yeah, I was going to say
volleyball last night. It wasn't much movement at all.
I'm sorry, You have the score table.
Yeah, pretty much. Sometimes they stick you with
the score table and you're just sat there the whole time.
So yeah, it's very different. I'm I'm moving.
Right, right. Someone said be creative.
Since you aren't allowed to brace, using only tape can be a
challenge. Can you speak about that a
little bit? Yes.
So the way that they tackle and play is very, I, I don't know
how to explain it. It's like a cross between
tackling and wrestling. Like they're very much on each
other all the time. So bracing can be very like knee
bracing. That kind of stuff can injure
other players like much more than it could in like football,
that kind of thing. Especially because the play is
always moving. There's not stoppage all the
time. So, so yeah, there's no bracing.
There's a few things you can get away with, like maybe a, you
know, a small thumb spica that's not, you know, that's padded or
something that's not very bulky. But like the casting you guys
talked about football, that's not happening.
You know, no one's casting for play in rugby and very few of
them will even wear like a soft ankle brace even.
So you're taping everything. So when we get students for
their immersion, that's usually the first thing we're doing.
Like way back when I took the boci had a knee taping like an
MCL or something. I was thinking to myself, like,
when am I ever going to do this? And here I am.
I do it every day. Like, you know what I mean?
Like Fast forward 20 years, it's like every day I'm doing this.
Shoulders are the same way. We do a lot of strapping for the
shoulder, and it's very individual based on the players,
too, because, you know, I know, Sandy, you were talking about
football. Like, you love how unique each
player has a different role. And in rugby, it's very similar
to that. They very much have their own
role in the sport. And so they have to have
different levels of mobility based on that.
So yeah, it's very individualized on how you're
doing it. And like, I'll make things up.
I'll be like, what do you feel is wrong with this, you know, or
where's your pain level or where is this restriction feeling?
And we'll make it up on the fly. How does this feel?
This isn't right. Great, let's try this tomorrow
until we get right. So sometimes I just make things
up and my students are like, oh, where'd you learn that?
I'm like, I just made that up. So I'm like, you just want to
think of the anatomy and the Physiology and break it down to
that and talk to your athlete and figure it out from there.
So like, what are you functionally trying to achieve
and how do I get it to be that way with this type of tape?
Yeah, that's what I would always tell the students.
Like if you know your anatomy, like you, you pretty much got
almost every tape job down. Like you could figure it out
you. Got to figure out what's got to
stop and what it's got to help. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, 100%. And then like us, we live in
Houston, it's hot and humid, so some tapes just aren't going to
cut the mustard. Like you do anything with white
tape, it's coming off in like 2 minutes.
So you know what I mean? Unless it's an ankle or
something, we're not really using that at all.
Right, so Speaking of tape, the next thing that I asked on our
Instagram was what is a must in your kit when you work rugby?
And before I share some of these, I want to know what your
thoughts are. OK, so I thought about this
ahead of time so I knew you were going to ask.
And it's what, 6 things gloves, gauze, 3 inch stretch, leuco
tape, electrical tape or insulation tape.
If you have international players, that's what they'll
call it, sticky spray. Oh, sticky spray.
If you have those six things for match play, you're going to be
fine. Everything else can be taken
care of in the locker room at halftime or after the game
practice. Obviously I'll carry a little
bit more just because we have the time and they can come out
of drills. But if it's a match like, you
really only need those six things.
OK. That's like electrolyte stuff,
which you know every athlete talks about.
But if you're doing your nutrition right and your
training right from like a neural response, you shouldn't
need a lot of that stuff. Right, right.
So on a case says wear gloves constantly.
Be prepared to work faster than you've ever worked.
Other must haves, sponges for head wounds and nubbins.
Electrical tape for securing head bandages and securing
nubbins. Nubbins, that's a new one I get
a lot of words for different booboos and injuries from.
I am a nationally diverse group, but I haven't heard that one.
Yet. Yeah, I was going to say I don't
know what a nubbin is. Wait, let me look real quick
because she I did ask. I was like, I don't know what a
nubbin is. I said what is an oven?
She said. It's a little piece that the
Flyers tape to their knees for line outs.
Oh, that we just call that a lifty block.
Oh, you know what? Someone else said the same
thing. They said electrical tape for
leg wedges. Yeah, leg wedges.
So in rugby, if you watch it like there's two ways to re
enter the ball. It's with a line out, which is,
it's not like a soccer throne, but we'll call it that.
So the guy that stands on the sideline is like his feet have
to be touching the line, throws the ball in and both teams are
lined up and it's very strategic.
So they have a lot of different calls on where they're going to
throw the ball and they'll lift the guy in the air to catch the
ball. And we're talking.
So my team, I've got a 6/7 lock being lifted by another guy
who's like 65 or another two guys who are 65.
So they tape around their thighs and they'll use like a line out
block or a nub. And I've just learned it's
called also. And they'll use those to have
somewhere to like grab on the front of their thigh.
And so it's a sport specific thing, you know, wide receivers,
they need gloves, line out jumpers need lifters.
So yeah, so that's why I have 3 inch stretch because that's like
the best tape for that. And then electrical, they'll go
above and below that lifting block to make sure that stays
where they want it. A lot of the time some of them
do. That's also a very individual
thing. Like each athlete tapes his legs
a certain way and they've got their own kind of lifting
blocks. One of my guys won't use like
pre made lifting blocks. He'll like get the empty 3 inch
stretch rolls and like bend them a certain way and use that as a
block, which I'm like great, thanks for recycling that that
way. So I always throw my ends for
him. Oh.
Nice. He knows where he knows where to
go get his ends. So Oh my gosh.
Yeah. That's.
So funny. By far the most answered must
have, I guess is gloves and gauze.
Like by far, everyone said gloves and gauze.
They said everyone's there's gonna be blood everywhere.
Electrical tape was definitely second.
That's funny. And then the next few, it was
kind of like a tie between power flex Afd, just like getting like
having the little gauze on the power flex and then Leuco tape,
Steri strips and Vaseline, which all kind of have to do with that
blood and wound care, another blood, wound care, blood Buster
and cleaning spray. And then we had a couple ones
that weren't as popular, just some runners up, tooth saver,
Sam splints and slings. Oh 100% yeah.
You have to have all of your emergency equipment like I, I do
give presentations on emergency action planning timeouts and
then like on field care. And part of the reason is
because I've, I've done so many, like I've, I've had doctors joke
on my black cloud, like they'll work events with me and see
things they've never seen in their entire careers before,
things like that. Yeah.
Like I had the spine board, a lumbar spine injury before.
Like, you know, there was no other way to get them off.
So here we go. We're we're going to board you
and take you to secondary exam off field.
So yeah. So those things are must haves,
like, obviously. But like the I think I answered
by way of like typical like I'm reaching into my on person pack
rather than my field kit if that makes sense.
So then are you carrying a lot more in your on field since
you're doing a lot more on field?
Or no, I carry those things I mentioned and then I carry Opas
and MP as that's it. That's pretty much that's pretty
much all I have on me. Well, that's not true.
I'll have, I'll have skin Lube and nose plugs because those, I
need to have those too, because usually I stick those.
Usually I pre Lube a nose plug and wrap it in two gauze, stick
that in one of my gloves and then I'll have just regular
gauze in the other glove because you're wearing them constantly.
So yeah, so I'll have that kind of stuff on it.
But I, I don't have a very large field pack because I don't need
it during the match. Like if I need anything else
they're already coming off anyway, right?
And then they're just going to go get an exam by the doc or
wait till post match. Nice.
What do you use Lucca tape for? Because Lucca tape was pretty
popular. Everything.
I was going to say I love Lucca tape but I but I don't know too
many other people who do. But that's what I when she was
talking about the white tape just falling off, I was just
like, oh, that's a Lucca right there.
Yeah, I mean, for us, because we're in a humid environment,
like subtropical heat and humidity, it comes in handy for
that. Like even a leuco tape comes off
sometimes, which I remember in school being told never put it
on the skin and that's a lie. Who came up with that?
But I, I don't know. We use it for everything.
We use it for our knees. We'll use it for shoulders,
we'll use it for thumbs. We'll use it for, you know, any
like collateral ligament restrictive taping, whether it's
an elbow or whatever. But The thing is to overseas
they don't have white athletic tape readily available because
they don't have athletic training.
So a lot of them have Lugo tape available because that is the
higher demand. So it's actually a lot cheaper
over there. It's a kind of lift for supply
and demand internationally. It's a lot cheaper to get Lugo
tape and it's they call it rigid tape because it is more rigid
than white tape. So if you ever work with a
random international athlete and they're like, oh, I usually get
my ankles on a rigid tape or brown tape, they'll call it.
So their, their expectation is more that it's that they don't
understand how expensive it is here and how, you know, less
available is it'll be on back order sometimes and things like
that. So yeah, but yeah, we use it for
everything. We'll fix boots with it too,
which I don't like doing, but I'd rather them use electrical
tape for that. But just tell them to get new
boots finally. For the for the boots, like do
they have specific like rugby boots or like are they just kind
of like, oh, like soccer boots or like anything like that?
They do. They're harder to get here in
the US, so, but they do, yeah, they do.
The backs are much more like soccer players.
They want like the smallest boots possible.
They're kicking a lot, as well as like quick running movement.
And then the Fords, the Fords and the particularly the props,
like they're doing scrummaging, which is really hard on their
toes and their feet. So they want a bulkier boot.
So some of them will wear a football boot if they can't find
it, like a rugby boot. But usually, I mean, I don't,
I've worked a lot of club and stuff, but it's been a while now
since I have because I've been with my professional team for
seven years now. But I don't really remember at
club level what they're wearing. So I'd have to defer to a club
level expert on that. But my guys are typically in
their rumpy boots and then like their scrummaging boots are
different than their regular boots because they have like
much longer metal studs for match player scrums.
Just because the amount of force that goes through, they can't
wear just the little plastics, they'll slide right out from the
room. Oh wow.
So yeah, so like at practice, if they're going to go do
scrummaging, they all sit down and change their shoes.
OK. That's pretty funny.
Man, the things you like have no idea if I'm.
Seriously, it's really cool just to see just how each sport is
unique and just like the different culture and like vibe.
It's really cool. Yeah, 100%.
That's one thing I love about this job, right?
Like we just, you never know what our day is going to be like
and then you never know where your career is going to end up
and all of that. So it's great.
That give me chills too. Right, right.
I never thought I'd be working in professional rugby and you
know, you know, had a medical of a team for this long and that
kind of stuff when I was first starting out, so it's cool, you
know. It's it's funny where the Road
Rd. takes you. Yeah, we just have to be open
the opportunities, kids. That's so true.
Absolutely. So true.
So let's talk injuries. Oh, fun.
So I did ask what is the most common injury that you've seen
in rugby? Obviously was very varied.
Lacerations and blood, open wounds were especially the face
were the top answer, followed by concussions, which was also
interesting because some people were very like adamant that
concussions were one of their top injuries.
And then some people were like, I actually see fewer concussions
because of the tackling techniques and stuff.
So it was kind of like back and forth between that, but it was a
top injury. AC joint sprain, shoulder
dislocations followed by ankle sprains and knee injuries.
Yeah. So I would say everything,
literally everything head to toe.
I think the concussion debate is a good one.
I think it depends on the level of ability of your players that
makes. Sense.
If they're, it's just like middle school football, I will
never work middle school football.
Like that makes me more nervous than working a professional
rugby match from like a catastrophic injury standpoint.
You know what I mean? Like there's skill, isn't there?
You've got one kid that's 180 lbs and another kid that's 80
lbs. It's the whole thing.
So I think for that I would potentially look at like the
ability of like, you know, are they a Division One club?
Are they division two? Have they played before?
Is it a beer league where it's about the old dudes coming up
with, you know, their coolers every weekend?
That kind of stuff can really vary.
Like I've seen very interesting things on the club side.
So yeah, for us, I don't think it's been, I mean this past
season we had quite a few, but typically we don't have a lot
knock on wood, touch wood right now.
From Kevin, We have a cool one from Kevin, he says.
I think having an athlete get his ear ripped off his head wins
me the prize this week. So I'm evaluating another
athlete for an ankle injury. He comes up, hey, I think I
might have a concussion because it's hard to hear out of my one
ear. I didn't look up.
I just said, OK, hold tight, you're next.
Finished with ankle and he was kind of facing away from me.
So I said OK, tell me what's going on.
He turns and faces me and his ear is hanging off his head.
He did not even realize it. Turns out he was in a scrum and
someone reached up to pull him and grabbed his ear.
This is why they tape their ears.
Turns out he got to the field late and just forgot to.
I wrapped him in gauze and pointed him towards the
ambulances we had there. It was a huge tournament.
Also, there's my first ever PRN event.
I had worked after I was certified.
Oh my gosh, welcome to the profession.
Yeah, seriously. Which ripped ears was actually
also pretty common. That's interesting.
Do you not get a lot of those? The facial lacerations is
definitely valid. Like I, yeah, we get a lot of
that. It just, it's kind of like
boxing. Your face just splits open when
you get a lot of contacts and things or you're tackling
shoulders or things like that. Occasionally you'll get a boot
flying where it shouldn't fly and you'll get cut that way.
I had a guy get really good one and he had like a puncture right
above his eyebrow and then the other cleat like basically
followed his entire part down the center of his head.
He had quite a few stitches that match and he was not happy
because that's very rare for like a boot to be that high up.
It should have been a red card at the time, but we won't talk
about that. So you know, we'll get a lot of
that stuff. You know the thing before you
get everything. So like the day-to-day practice
stuff, you'll get your sprain strains, all that kind of stuff.
AC sprains are definitely common, but pretty much any
catastrophic injury that can happen can happen in rugby,
which is why I think those courses are so great.
I mean, I've had really rare injuries too, like I've had a
Rolando's fracture of a thumb. I've, you know, had a guy go out
and he was like holding his thumb.
And if they need you to come out like this is the other thing
opposite of soccer Excel. So you know, you guys are
talking about flops in soccer. That does not happen in if they
need you, they take a knee and that indicates to everyone they
need you out there. So if they take a knee, you
know, it's you need to look at them and they are not doing that
casually, right? They are, they're not just
winded or whatever. So.
You don't play. You're coming out.
Yeah, they don't do that. So I went out there and I was
like, what's going on? He was like my thumb.
So I was palpating and I got to the base of his thumb that just
the base of the medical Medicare ball and it like crumbled in my
hand. And I was like, you fractured
your thumb? And he was like, no, it's fine,
I can play, I can play. And I was like, no, like it's
fractured in multiple places. You need to come off because he
was also the guy that throws the ball in line, which is fun.
Fun fact, that guy's called the hooker so that it crumbled in my
hand and he's like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine.
It got up and ran back into play.
So play starts back up. OK.
Like I can't like physically take him off the field, so I
just run back off the field of radio.
The coaches like, hey, he's out. Like it's a like we need a sub.
It's a red, get the next guy ready and he's like, but he's
playing. I said the minute he touches the
rugby ball, he's done promise like and sure enough, like 2
plays happened. He didn't have touched the ball
and then the ball went out of balance and he had to throw it
in and it went like sideways. And then he just turned around
and walked straight to me. He's like, yeah, I'm done.
So and it was like crazy. And like once I got on the hand
surgeon for imaging and all that, he's like, this is 1% of
all gum injuries. Oh my gosh.
And so he had, you know, he had to have surgery, had to have it
repaired. He's still playing after that,
like after it healed. But it was like, it literally
like crumbled in in my palpation.
That was a good one. I had a really rare direct
axillary nerve injury. So typically when you have like
a direct blow to the axillary nerve, the shoulder dislocates.
So the guy takes a knee. I get out there to the field and
he's like, Megan, I dislocated my shoulder.
So I'm like, OK, palpate his shoulder.
I'm like, it's not dislocated, man.
Like this is in place like because if it was, I'd just pop
it back in. He was, he was like, no, it's
dislocated. I was like, guy, like it's not
dislocated. Like I'm my hands are on your
shoulder. It's fine.
So I'm like palpating around. And so I just go into functional
testing and it just wasn't right.
So I was like, just come off. He's like, yeah, it's
dislocated. And so he went to the doctor.
I was like, this is not dislocated.
Your shoulder's fine. But it turns out he, he, he had
the direct low, the axillary nerve.
He ended up having deltoid atrophy long he ended up having
to have a distal tricep X-ray nerve transfer surgery, which
wasn't even available seven years ago.
There was like only two surgeons in the country that could do the
surgery And he came back to play after that and it was really
cool. But it's super rare cause
usually the axillary nerve gets injured, the shoulder dislocates
too. So like every surgeon he saw was
like your sure this shoulder didn't came.
We're like yes, we promised we got all the imaging like his
shoulder MRI was like clean, no inflammation, nothing and all
axillary nerves. So that was an interesting one.
This last season we had a scapula fracture.
Oh, interesting. And it was not that painful.
It was the body of the scapula and it just was like from a
direct contact flow to like the top of the shoulder.
How did that present? He was just like, my shoulder
hurts, but it's like my back and there was no deformity or
anything like that. So he had to pick it up on
imaging. He wasn't even that like limited
functionally, but he's just like something's wrong.
Turns out he had a scapular fracture and it it was, you
know, kind of up by the coracoid process.
I don't know if the body actually, it was up there, but
it wasn't all the way through. It wasn't displaced.
So yeah, it was pretty interesting.
That was a very one too. So did they sling him or did?
Was there, Yeah, I mean, he was limited his, he was in a sling.
But I mean, as long as he wasn't like elevating to get into that
coracoid motion up there, it was fine.
So like he was limited to like 30° motion I think at first and
then he was back. I think he played.
I think we cleared him for match like like 5 weeks later.
So yeah, I think he only missed four or five matches.
OK, OK. Cool.
So yeah, that was an interesting one too.
I've never seen one of those so. Mandy, do you want to read this
one from Josh B? Yes, Josh says.
Player got his face stepped on, Ouch, cleated and had his tragus
little ear notch torn, almost complete, almost clean off.
There was so much blood and it was my first game as a student.
I thought his eardrum ruptured. He was bleeding out so much that
it pulled in his ear that he could not hear out of that side.
I believe initially we used non sterile gauze to take up the
excess blood then drained it out of his ear onto onto the field.
We then slapped some non adherent gauze and light plast
around his head to go get to go for stitches.
We made him go to the hospital and not the bars as was his
plan. The game we the game.
We actually had a few we had to send to the hospital, a couple
sets of stitches and one dropkick blocked by the crotch.
Well, see, that's a bummer. The plan was ruined.
He was going to go to the bomb. I mean club rugby's different.
It's they and actually even our professional league, it's a very
cultural thing with rugby. There's a post match social
afterwards so even at like international and professional
level both the teams come together and have beers and food
and they usually give each other like man of the match award or
something like that. That's really cool.
Yeah, so I forget what the saying is.
Like it's a game of Barbarians played by gentlemen, like,
'cause they don't, you know what I mean?
Like it's a barbaric game. But then they come together and
like, hey, man, like, how are you doing afterwards?
And then they, it's not like hockey or basketball.
They don't talk to the refs poorly.
That's nice. Yeah.
So like you can get carded if you're cussing at the ref so
they have the most polite arguments ever on the field.
It's funny. A lot of.
People, So I could see that he'd be bummed not to go to the post
match social for that for sure. That's definitely part of the
experience. But yeah, it's interesting.
We did get a lot of people messaging about the socials and
I had no clue what they were talking about, but well, there
you go. Yeah, also I love how first game
as a student look at that learning opportunities.
Yeah, I had. I was working a like a
collegiate club game and I had APM and R resident who was
interested in sportsmen. So she was shadowing or coming
to help work because she wanted to do a sports fellowship.
So obviously she needs experience for that application.
And she, it was her first time working with me.
And I was working for a university that's like kind of
nerdy. And they were playing this like
really beefy farm town college from across the state.
And this kid just got sandwiched between the ground and this very
large guy. And he and he ended up with a
clavicle fracture, a scapula fracture and a pneumo.
And she came running over and she could just tell it was
serious. And she was just like, what do I
do? Even though she's a resident
physician, she was like, just tell me what to do.
She was like, I'm out of my comfort zone here and I was
like, take vitals, call 911. I'll manage the actual arm
itself. Like, so you know, call the Ms.
the whole deal. But she went on to be in
attending sports PM and R Oh, I love that.
Yeah. She she was like, thanks for
getting me through that first day.
Like so yeah, that was her first day.
You're like, this is so beyond what I'm used to.
But she did great because some doctors will come in and be
like, I can pretend to handle this and she was just like just
tell me what to do because this is out of what I was asking.
That's really good self-awareness because that's
true. Like some doctors might come in
like that, like just come in with that certain energy.
So that's pretty cool. I'm a doctor.
I can handle this. But she was like, no, this is
not what anything I've ever trained for.
So I'm going to, I'm going to see what she needs.
You know, I've learned to everyone says like fake it till
you make it, fake it till you make it.
And I think that's there's value in that, but also there's value
in accepting what you don't know and being vulnerable enough to
ask slash brave enough to ask. You know, and talking about
rugby, we've talked about that, right?
Like ask your athletes, ask the coaches, talk to the referees,
like let them know where you are with the sport because it is so
unique to other sports. You're not just sitting on the
sideline like you're an active part of the match.
So letting them know like, hey, man, this is my third match.
Like, what do you guys need from me?
You know, this is my comfort level.
Do you have this on site? And that's where those medical
timeouts are so important for every event, you know, whether
it's your, you know, 90th match with the team or whatever, you
know, the other athletic trainers are not like, that's
why those are so important because even things like that
can help, you know, what are their expectations of you and
vice versa. Right, we have another one from
Ana Kay. She said she has a horizontal
fracture of the Patella after being tackled from behind.
It was not originally completely fractured all the way through,
but the athlete stood up while trying to keep her still and it
snapped with the first step. Top half shot 1/4 way up the
quad. Immediate surgery to approximate
the ends. She was returning from ACL tear
the year prior to Dang. I kind of actually had a similar
situation recently. We had a player that had a
partial star tendon rupture. Surgical repair got him back to
play. First match back to play, he
just had like this weird tackle and kind of got like
helicoptered around. So like his legs came up off the
ground and like he spun around and he landed right on his
Patella and fractured his tunnel from the pasar tendon repair.
It just fractured the Patella and they were like what?
And he played for like another 10 minutes or something on it
and then was like, I don't know, it's just not right.
And it came off but then wouldn't didn't come see us post
match because usually like if they have any injury, they
couldn't see us. Post match came in two days
later for the exit medical and his Patella was fractured in
half. And I was like, what?
What you've been like walking? He's like, I haven't been
walking that much, but like I knew something was wrong and I
was like, why didn't you see us, like right then?
He just never, I think he thought it was his patellar
tendon and not the Patella. I don't know.
But I was just like, what are you doing, Mandy?
Like walking around for two days?
That's rugby right there. They do stuff like that.
And you're like, what? Like how is this possible?
Like, And they usually call me on Sunday if it's something more
serious. They're like, hey, Meg, like I
got to see you tomorrow morning. This is what's going on.
And I don't know, because it's interesting.
I was like, I can't believe you just didn't even tell us.
You just walked in like that. Right, right.
Like I literally palpated his Patella and I was like, we need
an X-ray. And then I got my student.
I was like, you got to feel this.
And the doc just looked at me and I was like, I was like, it's
fractured. Wow.
Sure enough, all the way through.
Wow. I had someone take a baseball
pitch straight to the kneecap and he was fine.
Oh, that's impressive. I mean, they usually fracture
like that. Like it's a pretty strong bone.
It's really shaped. It doesn't typically fracture,
so it's impressive when they do. Right, right.
That's great. I bet it hurt.
Yeah, he collapsed pretty quick. Yeah.
You know what? He actually also didn't swell.
So I was like how how I mean, I did I only say it was a visiting
athlete. So I only saw him like right at
like right as it happened, I compressed him in case later,
but like I have no idea how he's I mean he's going to stiffen up,
but I was surprised it and just like balloon up right there.
Yeah, or at least the bone bruising the next couple, you
know, that probably hurt. That's impressive though, like
taking balls like that. Yeah.
Yeah, that's crazy. We have an anonymous one.
An athlete lost a whole tooth. Both teams helped us look for it
after the game. That's nice.
That's. Cute.
I guess right before the social right.
Yep, they help each other out like that for sure.
Yeah, most the time. There's sometimes they don't,
but most the time they do. Yeah, we get like in football
where like our AD will come down and be like we are not shaking
their hands. Make sure to keep them apart.
We are not going to go over to that other side.
Make sure that they're always separated after the game.
Make sure everyone knows. Oh wait, man, you got to be good
sports. I don't know.
Seriously, You just. It's.
Oh, go ahead. I was just going to say, you've
spent all that time beating the hell out of each other.
Yeah, but it's a respect thing. Like that's what they're there
to do. That's your job, right?
You've signed up to do that, whether you're professional
athlete or youth, like you've committed to performing that
piece of things. So you just respect the other
person for giving it their all for sure.
Have you found that that respect is kind of throughout the
different levels or is it like a culture thing?
Yeah, very much is. It's very similar to lacrosse in
that way. Like once you're, you know, like
once you're relaxed person, you're relaxed person, everybody
kind of respects you for that. Rugby's very similar to that.
It's very, it's very much like a rugby culture thing.
Like once you're in it, you're in it and you're part of it and
that respect is there. So that's one of the things I
love about it too. Like if, you know, now that I've
been in the league so long, you know, I've got players that play
on almost every other team now. So post match, when everybody
comes in and shakes hands, like I'll, you know, you know, hey,
how's it going? How's your, how's your
daughter's, what, 3 now? Like, you know, we'll have those
kind of chats at post match and that kind of stuff.
So yeah, it's really nice. That's one of the things I enjoy
about it, you know, and every morning they come in, everybody
comes and says good morning. So it's a handshake, a fist
bump, a hug. Like, you know, I've got one guy
comes in and gives me a big hug every morning.
It's, it's, you know, it's, it's really nice to just have that
interaction because in a normal athletic training room setting,
you might not see them until you get out to practice, you know
what I mean? But, but in our space,
everybody's kind of in the same space.
Everybody sees everybody that day.
You can immediately say, oh, that guy's not here today.
What's going on, coach? You know what I mean?
So it's it's a a little bit more family feeling.
How many people are on a like team and does it change?
Like if you're actually a follow up question, did the same people
play sevens and fifteens or like you only work fifteens right?
I only work fifteens. Athletes can crossover between
those two sports. It's typically, it's not every
kind of athletes, it's typically your backs that are crossing
over some of like your forwards, like your, your, your sevens and
eights. Some of them will cross over to
fifteens as well. I mean sevens, but usually
they're just playing the one version at a time.
So like I've had guys that came from 7th, they played 15 for a
year or two and then they've gone back to sevens.
Usually they'll have a preference and it'll just depend
like logistically why they're playing, which one or the other
or professional goal wise, you know, if I want to make the
Olympics, it has to be sevens because fifteens is not in the
Olympics but sevens is. I don't know if you guys follow
Ilona Meyer now because everybody seems to after the
Olympics, you know. So there is some crossover
there, but not a ton. Actually, I'm glad you brought
that up because I was going to ask that, you know, especially
after, you know, the Olympics, you know, I feel like rugby has
grown a lot more popular probably probably in the last
decade, even maybe probably sooner.
And then I think that Olympic performance is only going to
make it a little bit more popular in the US.
How much have you seen the game just change?
Like just from like maybe resources available or even just
popularity over the years? I've definitely seen it grow
from starting with our team, you know, because it's a National
League. So we come and play in LA and
San Diego, Seattle, you know, Boston, areas like that.
So you know, from year one to last season, like definitely
people stop us in the airport more often.
They're like you guys are on the shuttle bus, you know, to the
parking at the airport. Like are you guys with the rugby
team or sell the logo? So that never happened the first
couple seasons, you know what I mean?
So like just from an anecdotal standpoint, I can see that
growth happening. You know, we're in newer
leagues, so it's not totally stable.
We've had teams come in and out for franchises, but the core 7
are still there and and we're definitely growing.
We see more fans in the stadium. It didn't help we had COVID year
3, so we literally had five matches and then it cancelled
the year after that. Half the city still couldn't
have fans. So that kind of hurt us in terms
of league growth right when we were starting out.
But in general, it's definitely improved.
I think the Olympics did a really good job of showcasing
the women's game because the women's rugby has been around
for a long time and they've been very successful.
And I just don't think people even knew that women played
rugby until all this media attention came on from the
Olympics. And I think that has really been
great because you know, it's they're they're the same game
that is just, you know, different athletes are playing
them. And so it's really exciting.
So I think locally we've seen a lot more like even our, you
know, our team does like offseason, we'll do like clinics
with the youth and programs in the in the area.
And we've had a lot of girls signing up that we didn't have
the previous year. So that's really great to see.
You know, and then and then just from a fan standpoint, it's a
fun game. They're fast, they're exciting.
Whether it's sevens or fifteens, even fifteens, it's 80 minutes,
much like soccer, it's 80 minutes at the halftime.
There's not really a stoppage, but you get the contact and
collision like you get with football.
So it's really exciting to come watch and everybody's drinking
beer and tailgating. And if you sit next to somebody
with an accent, they will happily tell you all the rules.
You know what I mean? Like they want you as excited
about rugby as everybody else. So.
So it's really a fun experience on and off the field.
So yeah, we're excited with all the attention that the Olympic
spots. For I bet, I bet.
Is there a big difference that you've noticed between the men's
and women's game? I did work a bit of women's
fifteens, not really like I, you know, I think it just depends on
your coaching staff and like what style game that they're
running mostly. So you know, obviously men are
going to have a little bit bigger hits, a little bit faster
because physiologically they are, but the women's game is
just as exciting, just as hard hitting, just as fast like it,
you know, especially when you have like elite high quality
rugby. So you know, you know, they're
starting a women's. There is some women's
professional rugby in the country.
So if you're interested, go check it out.
There's a new league starting up as well.
So, you know, it's out there and a lot of these players never
played until high school or after.
So it's never too late to get into it, I guess is what I'm
saying. Like, you know, if you played
other sports and still want to be active and try sport, give
rugby a try. That's what they say, because
our touchdowns are called tries. So they say, give rugby a try.
You know, that is one thing that when I was sorting through these
messages, I was like, there are so many things like line outs.
I was like, I have no, no. So I like, I went and watched a
bunch of rugby clips cause I've never seen rugby.
So like I went and watched a bunch try to figure out like
kind of like the basics of like what, what even is this other
world of a sport that I've I've heard of obviously, but never
have really delved into. And it just was, I think, I
think line outs was the first one that I had looked up.
And so just to see someone be lifted off the floor and like,
that's how they that's part of their play.
It was, I was like, what is this?
This is like a complete new world.
Yeah, that and scrums are really cool.
And I mean, I've worked almost every sport in my career and I
think the only one I really haven't worked is ice hockey.
But it's so incredible, those two sport, I don't know what the
word is. I'm looking for like strategies
are really, really interesting to me.
And the like the scrum, just the amount of force that goes
through that scrum is incredible.
And that their strategy involved in it.
And that the the hooker, the guy in the middle in the front, he
has to hook the ball through to get possession and then the line
outs too. Yeah, like the and those are the
two most dangerous parts of the game too.
So as the AT on the pitch, like I've really got to be paying
attention to all parts of that because like I said before, I've
got a guy that's 6-7 being lifted up by 26564 guys in the
air who's jostling against the defender, also lifted in the air
by his teammates. They can be drops, you know,
contact can happen in the air, things like that.
So that can be a potentially very catastrophic situation.
Same thing if a scrum collapses, you know, those those props are
the three guys in the front. If they collapse and don't
collapse properly, you can, you know, snap a neck or something
like that. So they, you know, that's why
those those guys have to be identified as capable of being
in the front prior to the match, like on the roster, because you
can't just put another guy in the front because they they
don't really know what to do there and it's dangerous for
them. So yeah, it's really cool.
Those parts of the sport. That's cool.
And I think the kicking part of the sport's underrated too.
Like it's very strategic when they kick, how they kick, that
kind of thing. So yeah, I'm glad there's so
many out there that have worked. It was exciting to hear.
When you said what, 52% or something.
I was excited about that. I thought it was going to be
less. You know, I think I, I know that
like when I was working a lot of per DM, like there were a lot of
rugby opportunities that it like, I think because I think
because of it's not usually associated with like a college
or like someone who has like a a permanent AT it looked like
there was a lot of like per diem, like they're always
looking for someone who's not like associated with them, like
they're looking for someone elsewhere, you know, So I think
a. 100%. Yeah, the per diem community is
really. And I've noticed too, like
students are getting a lot more rotations with like club sports
at schools and they tend to have rugby.
So like. Oh, really?
Yeah, like. Especially in California, like
California is the most saturated rugby community in the country,
so. Oh, that's interesting.
Like if you look at USA Rugby membership across the country,
like they have the most for sure.
They have more clubs, there's more collegiate teams in
California. So especially if you're in
California, there's a lot of opportunity there, but I would
challenge any athletic trainer who feels like they need to
sharpen their on field skills a little bit to sign up and work
some rugby. Cuz getting thrown in and having
a ear ripped off your first day, stuff like that.
That kind of stuff doesn't happen every day, but if you
feel like that's an area of your skill set you need to sharpen,
go pick up some rugby shifts because it'll it'll sharpen your
own field skills for sure. Yeah, there's plenty.
There's plenty of per DM available.
I was. Going to say there's plenty of
opportunities. Yeah, yeah.
And it's it's exciting, it's fun.
It's not for everybody. Like, you know, some people
would rather work soccer all day.
That's not something I think I could do.
Again, something would kill me. I'd be like, get off so, or now
that you're down, you're coming off.
So, yeah. So I don't know if I'd have the
patience for that anymore now that I've worked rugby for so
long. But but yeah, it's, it's been,
it's been good. It's been interesting.
It's it's been good to me. I've seen a lot of random
injuries. You know, like I said, I have a
spy board of that lumbar spine. And afterwards asked my travel
doc, I was like, did I do the right thing here?
Was that two extra? And he's like, no, like that's
what you had to do. Like there's no other way to get
them off the road. It's like, OK, thanks for making
me feel better about that. So I was like, really like, as
it was happening, I'm like, really?
I can't believe it's Spy morning.
A lumbar spine right now, Right, Right.
I can't believe it's happening because we're on TV and
everything, you know what I mean?
Like, so in the moment I was like, is this really necessary?
But it was so. Did they stop the game for that?
Yeah, they have to stop the game for that stuff.
So yeah, if it's pretty serious, they'll stop the game and they
just, they just stop time. They don't add injury time,
they'll just stop the clock. So yeah, for stuff like that,
they'll stop the game. And we had, you know, in like
going through our World Rugby stuff.
Like we all have the same system.
So no matter which team you're working with, we all have the
same emergency system on, like how we handle those injuries.
So it's like kind of all hands on deck, everybody comes in and
we just get it done. So, yeah, so that's good.
Sweet, is there anything else you wanted to touch upon or
anything that we missed? I don't think so.
I think I just encourage everybody, like I said, to give
it a try and especially if you feel like that's an area of your
skill set that you need improving.
You'll get that improvement in your skills by working rugby.
And even if you don't want to work it as a medic, come out and
give it a try. Like come be a fan, like come on
out to some of our matches and and get into it because it's
really exciting sport too. And I'm most athletic trainers.
We love sport anyway. So, you know, even if you don't
want to work it and it's not your cup of tea, like come on
out. Because it's a fun fan
experience too. Absolutely.
I think it's time for us to go watch some rugby now.
I'd. Be down, I'd catch.
I'd catch the clips during the Olympics.
Oh yeah, I did. Caught some highlights.
Didn't actually catch the full game.
Yeah, that's Sevens though, so you've got to come check out
Fifteens. Too.
Yeah, because I don't think I've seen fifteens.
I think I've only seen sevens. Yeah, and in sevens they don't
really do scrubs and line outs to the same intensity that we
do. They don't have enough players.
Yeah, like a scrum is 8 per side and fifteens and they like it's
sevens. So right, they do it a little
bit different in that sport. Yeah, but yeah, come on out,
give rugby a try, everybody. See, like even before this I
wouldn't have known that rugby had two different like sevens
and fifteens. Now like the next time I see
rugby or if I go watch like I'll be able to to be like, oh, this
is what we're talking about with sevens or now I want to go see
fifteens or you know. Yeah, I had no context because I
always heard of rugby sevens, so obviously if they're labeling it
sevens, there's another thing. But I was like, I don't know
what that other thing is, but now I know.
Yeah, well, thank you guys for having me on.
This was really awesome to have an opportunity to sit and talk
rugby for an hour. No thank you.
I learned shoot learned a lot. That was really cool.
So there was a lot of just learning from this episode or
just about rugby in general. But I think this story really
like makes me think of my favorite rugby memory, which is
when I was a student, we had a club rugby team that when they
had games on our campus, they had to have an AT covering.
And I guess the AT that they had like something came up, they
couldn't make it. And it was like day of the game,
like within two hours of the game, the AT wasn't going to
make it. So one of their players came
into our athletic training room. We're closing up, like we're
finishing up and they're asking anybody like, can you just cover
this game? We'll pay whatever, whatever.
Our basketball AT who's been working basketball for years,
right? D1 basketball, right?
He's now indoor AT basketball guy, right, right.
Was like, all right, I'll do it. So he goes out there and does it
and like whatever that like it was an evening game.
So we finish up our studying and stuff like that.
We were going to start heading home, but we figured how the
games are also going and we saw the lights on.
So we're like, hey, let's go, let's go see how he's doing.
So we so we go down there and we're like, hey, how's it going?
And just the look on his eye, he's like, dude, I had this one
guy that shouldered. He's back out there dislocation.
I already had to put someone in like steri strips like just that
wide eyed look. It was just like, not that like
obviously couldn't like obviously handled it right, but
it's just the. All at once.
Yeah, the what the hell is this? This is a war zone.
That. That's always my favorite
memory. That's pretty funny.
I didn't know that story. Yeah, you may remember who it
might be because they did our basketball episode.
So you could probably just imagine, based on that
conversation in that episode, just the personality and putting
that in rugby so. It worked out.
I love that we love Kyle. He's a good dude.
Yeah, I, I don't think I could ever handle working rugby.
So I commend anyone who is willing to put themselves in
that situation. You guys are amazing.
Like we said, and like Megan said before, I think one of the
biggest things to learn rugby various, I mean, apart from just
like a new sport in general, but like rugby specifically.
Because there's so much and so many intricacies and so many
things is really having a mentor or supervisor or someone who can
learn from and know exactly when to go out and you know all the
what to do beyond the medical care, right?
Because the medical care, you know that part.
Yeah, Yeah, that's true. So we do have several types of
episodes here on AT Corner. This one was a story episode
that we Co hosted with Megan. We also have education episodes
that Randy heads. He reads a lot of articles.
Thank you so much to AT chat and Clinically pressed.
They're available for Cus. Make sure you check those out.
We also have various topics that we have interviews on.
And then we also have other CU opportunities that you can find
in the show notes, especially like Medbridge.
There's a code in there for $150.00 off.
So make sure you Scroll down, reach out to us AT Corner
Podcast on Instagram. And I think that's all I have.
That's perfect. Thank you for helping us
showcase athlete training behind the tape.
Bye.