Rugby is one of the hardest sports in the world to play. It's a full-contact collision sport played with almost no protective gear, and professional rugby union has one of the highest injury rates of any team sport: around 76 to 81 time-loss injuries per 1,000 player-hours in matches. Elite forward packs hit the scrum with forces above 16,000 newtons, and a single match involves around 150 tackles. Here are five ways the research shows just how brutal rugby is.

Is rugby violent?

Rugby is physical, not violent. The difference matters. Violence means trying to hurt someone; rugby's contact happens within strict laws on how you can tackle, scrum and ruck, and foul play such as high tackles or striking is punished with penalties, cards and bans.

But the collisions themselves are real, frequent and hard, and they're why rugby players get injured far more often than players of most other team sports. Besides a gumshield and perhaps a scrum cap or light padding, players take those hits with no protection at all. If you want the numbers, here they are.

1. Rugby has one of the highest injury rates in team sport

A 2013 meta-analysis of professional men's rugby union (Williams and colleagues, Sports Medicine) pooled the research to that point and found 81 injuries per 1,000 player-hours in matches, compared with about 3 per 1,000 hours in training. The authors noted that rugby union has one of the highest reported match injury rates of all professional team sports.

The English Premiership's own injury surveillance project tells a similar story. In the 2022-23 season:

  • there were 76 match injuries per 1,000 player-hours, and the average injury kept a player out for 38 days;
  • concussion was the most common match injury for the 12th season in a row, making up 24% of all match injuries;
  • half of all match injuries happened in the tackle: 26% to the tackler and 24% to the player being tackled.

To put that in perspective: a match has about 40 player-hours of rugby (30 players for 80 minutes), so a rate of 76 per 1,000 hours works out at roughly three time-loss injuries per professional match, across both teams.

2. Scrum forces top 16,000 newtons

The scrum is the clearest example of the raw force in rugby. In a 2013 study from the University of Bath (Preatoni and colleagues, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports), 34 forward packs from six playing levels scrummaged against an instrumented scrum machine.

International packs produced a peak compression force of 16.5 kilonewtons at the moment of engagement. That's roughly the force of 1.7 tonnes pressing through the front rows. Even after the hit, international packs sustained around 8.3 kN of pushing force.

The researchers noted that these forces are in the range that cadaver studies have linked to potential spine injury over time. Partly because of this work, the scrum engagement sequence was changed in 2013 to "crouch, bind, set", with props binding before the push to take some of the impact out of the hit.

3. A tackle puts around 2,000 newtons through the shoulder

Tackles are the most frequent collision in rugby. A 2011 study (Usman, McIntosh and Fréchède, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport) measured the force through a tackler's shoulder using a force plate built into a 45 kg tackle bag.

The average maximum shoulder force was about 1,660 N in the laboratory and almost 2,000 N in field tests, about the same as the weight of 200 kg pressing on one shoulder. Shoulder pads made no meaningful difference to the force. And that's tackling a bag, not a 115 kg forward running at you.

4. Players cover around 6 km while making all that contact

Rugby isn't just collisions. In a study of elite English rugby union matches (Roberts and colleagues, Journal of Sports Sciences, 2008), backs covered about 6.1 km and forwards about 5.6 km per match.

Forwards ran slightly less, but spent around nine minutes per match in high-intensity activity, most of it in static exertion such as scrummaging, rucking, mauling and tackling, compared with about three minutes for backs. That's nine minutes of near-maximal pushing and wrestling, spread across 80 minutes of running.

Our comparison of rugby vs American football looks at how those running demands stack up against the NFL.

5. A match has around 150 tackles, 115 rucks and 20 scrums

A 2022 systematic review of 73 studies (Paul and colleagues, Sports Medicine Open) pulled together how many collisions happen in a rugby union match. On average, a match had about:

  • 156 tackles;
  • 116 rucks;
  • 22 scrums.

Forwards experience more impacts and tackles than backs, and more of the very heavy impacts. Newer research using instrumented mouthguards shows why tackle height matters: in elite rugby, high tackles were more than 30 times as likely as tackles to the middle of the body to cause a big head acceleration (above 30 g) for the ball carrier (Woodward and colleagues, BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine, 2024). That's one reason England's community game lowered the legal tackle height to the waist in 2023.

And yes, a scrum can push back a Formula 1 car

Not a scientific study, but too good to leave out. In 2016 Red Bull pitted its 2012 RB8 car, driven by Daniel Ricciardo, against the Bath Rugby pack using a specially built scrum machine. After the car got the early drive, the eight forwards (around 900 kg of them) dug in and forced it back.

Is rugby dangerous for amateur players?

Injury rates in amateur rugby are lower than in the professional game, but still significant. A 2018 meta-analysis (Yeomans and colleagues, Sports Medicine) found about 47 match injuries per 1,000 player-hours in senior amateur men's rugby, around 60% of the professional rate.

The biggest factors you can control are fitness, strength and technique, especially tackle technique. Players who are strong, fit and well-coached cope with the collisions better.

How players prepare their bodies for the collisions

Professional teams spend a huge amount of time on strength and conditioning for exactly this reason. Stronger muscles, a robust neck and shoulders, and the fitness to keep good technique when tired all help players handle repeated contact. Our rugby training guide sets out a three-day gym plan built for players.

Grapplers face a similar challenge, with a different kind of contact: hours of pushing, pulling and scrambling rather than big hits. If you train both, JitsAI's guide to strength training for jiu-jitsu covers what carries over from the gym to the mat.

Frequently asked questions

How hard is rugby?

Very. It's a full-contact collision sport with one of the highest injury rates in professional team sport, around 76 to 81 time-loss injuries per 1,000 player-hours in matches. Players cover around 5.5 to 6 km per match while making or taking around 150 tackles and 115 rucks between the two teams.

Is rugby violent?

Rugby is physical rather than violent. The contact is governed by strict laws, and foul play such as high tackles is punished. But the collisions are frequent and hard, which is why injury rates are high.

How much force is in a rugby scrum?

A 2013 University of Bath study measured peak forces of about 16.5 kN when international packs engaged, roughly the force of 1.7 tonnes, with around 8 kN sustained during the push.

How far does a rugby player run in a game?

In elite rugby union, backs cover around 6.1 km and forwards around 5.6 km per match, according to a study of English professional matches.

Is rugby dangerous?

Rugby carries a higher injury risk than most team sports, especially at professional level, and concussion is the most common match injury in the English Premiership. Good fitness, strength and tackle technique reduce the risk.

References

  • Williams S, Trewartha G, Kemp S, Stokes K. A meta-analysis of injuries in senior men's professional rugby union. Sports Medicine, 2013; 43(10): 1043 to 1055. PubMed 23839770
  • England Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project, 2022-23 season report. RFU, Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Players' Association, 2024.
  • Preatoni E, Stokes KA, England ME, Trewartha G. The influence of playing level on the biomechanical demands experienced by rugby union forwards during machine scrummaging. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 2013. PubMed 23362799
  • Usman J, McIntosh AS, Fréchède B. An investigation of shoulder forces in active shoulder tackles in rugby union football. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2011. PubMed 21689986
  • Roberts SP, Trewartha G, Higgitt RJ, El-Abd J, Stokes KA. The physical demands of elite English rugby union. Journal of Sports Sciences, 2008. PubMed 18569548
  • Paul L et al. Quantifying collision frequency and intensity in rugby union and rugby sevens: a systematic review. Sports Medicine Open, 2022. PubMed 35050440
  • Woodward J et al. Instrumented mouthguards in elite-level men's and women's rugby union: characterising tackle-based head acceleration events. BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine, 2024. PubMed 39104376
  • Yeomans C et al. The incidence of injury in amateur male rugby union: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 2018; 48: 837 to 848. PubMed 29299876