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Australian rugby player, 25, dies following head injury in 'tragic accident' on field

Nicholas Tooth was injured tackling an opponent in a regional NSW fixture on Saturday.

NICHOLAS TOOTH, A 25-year-old second row with Quirindi Lions in New South Wales, Australia, died yesterday after suffering a head injury in a regional fixture on Saturday.

Tooth clashed heads with a Narrabri Blue Boars opponent in the Central North 1st grade match and was treated at the scene before being airlifted to hospital in Newcastle, the ABC report.

“It really was just a tragic accident, Nick went in to tackle an opponent and his head clashed with shoulder and he went down,” says Charles Murray, president of the Quirindi Lions club.

“There was no foul play, nothing untoward about it at all, sadly it was just a very tragic accident.”

“I’d seen him grow up from a child through junior rugby and grow into a young man, he was a lovely kid, he had a bit of a larrikin spirit in him – he was a really good bloke and very popular, and his family for generations have been great rugby supporters in this district and great community people.”

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    Mute Chris Mcdonnell
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:39 AM

    Terrible accident, really feel for his family and friends.
    Also to other guy involved in the accident, I hope he can accept it was just a horrible accident and it doesn’t affect the rest of his life

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    Mute RobsonKeane
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    Apr 20th 2015, 10:38 AM

    Blue in the face from saying it but rugby football is becoming too dangerous. RIP.

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    Mute Boganity
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:12 AM

    Tragic news, especially so in such a small community

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    Mute Anthony
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:56 AM

    RIP. I feel for his family and friends and in particular the opponent.

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    Mute Donal Treacy
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    Apr 20th 2015, 10:06 AM

    Absolute tragedy. Concussion has become a real issue in the game. It is no longer a contact sport it is a collision sport.

    Anthony Foleys suggestion on a recent interview to limit subs allowed may help. Instead of having 16 fresh players on the field it means that teams would tire faster and a big team could be dragged around the pitch so they tire and gaps appear. The equivalent of that at the moment is crashing headfirst into contact until gaps appear.

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    Mute George Grey
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:40 AM

    Tragic tragic news. Just reminds us how lucky we all are as we go about our day to day business.

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    Mute Tom's Beer Club
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:38 AM

    Sure look at american Football, they wear full on helmets and they have big problems with concussions. Sometimes people are just really unlucky

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    Mute Eric Lensherr
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:51 AM

    Helmets don’t actually do a huge pile to stop concussion. Concussion is caused by the brain being shook in the skull, which causes swelling and trauma. You can get concussed without ever hitting your head, for instance if you are tackled or if you land heavily on your back. Pads and helmets protect against fractures but in terms of concussion they are actually quite dangerous in that they allow players to make huge hits that they might otherwise not.

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    Mute Robert
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    Apr 20th 2015, 1:58 PM

    Agree Eric, the added protection used in the NFL simply enables the players to hit even harder.

    Have you heard of CTE? Its a really interesting issue;

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05102tf

    In the future, i reckon CTE will be diagnosed for many of this generations rugby players.

    However, this is all a separate issue to this man’s unfortunate death. This man hasn’t died due to rugbys increasing physicality.

    Throughout rugby’s history there have been severe accidents, many people becoming paraplegics, regardless of increased conditioning etc. at all levels of the game. In fact more numbers at lower levels due to poor technique in the tackle and scrum.

    This unfortunate death shouldn’t be used as an example of where rugby is going wrong…

    Instead we should be highlighting serious mistreatment of players by the system, as we clearly saw with George Norths repeated KO’s in this years 6N match versus England.

    Seen this regularly over the years, I remember in 2009 @ Croker Shane Jennings being KO’d completely then was woken up by medics using bottle of ammonia, then he zig zagged his way down the pitch to join a scrum, wobbling like he’d just sunk 20 pints. Ref just ignored it, waited for him to be woken up and rejoin the scrum.

    No matter what level of conditioning, there will always be deaths, paralysing injuries and concussions. But player welfare policy must improve.

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    Mute George Grey
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:47 AM

    On another note….and nothing to do with this tragic story……this article is verbatim from the Guardian, yet is credited to Sean Farrell! I tried to send an email to him via the link above but it proved bogus!

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    Mute Anthony
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:54 AM

    A guy tragically dies and you complain about copy and pasting. Perspective.

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    Mute Joseph Blocks
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    Apr 20th 2015, 10:04 AM

    What a tragedy. This isn’t the first and almost certainly won’t be the last incident like this we’ll see. I hope the IRB investigate whether or not he might have picked up any previous concussions in this match, or recent matches that might have contributed. They really need to bring outspoken experts like Dr. Gary O’Driscoll back into the fold to deal with this incredibly serious issue rather than alienating them because of fear of what’s coming down the tracks.

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    Mute Donal Treacy
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    Apr 20th 2015, 10:17 AM

    Agree. Sadly I fear it will only be truly addressed when data shows it is badly affecting playing numbers.

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    Mute Frank Delano
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:14 AM

    RIP . I wonder how long or what it will take for head gear to become mandatory , The GAA brought it in years ago and it’s an amateur sport

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    Mute TheHeathen
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:29 AM

    You don’t know what you’re talking about. Head gear in Rugby doesn’t stop injury or concussion. Look at Rory Best. Concussed with headgear. Leigh Halfpenny, headgear and always battered because he has the worst tackling technique around.

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    Mute Luke Byrne
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:39 AM

    Headgear in rugby is proven to be useless… Concussion injuries aren’t necessarily caused by a direct blow to the head either… Unfortunately it was here…purely freak accident

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    Mute Jimmy Jim-Jim
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:52 AM

    Head gear in American Football has been shown to increase the risk of head injuries. The added protection gives players a sense of invulnerability, causing them to take risks they wouldn’t have otherwise which result in head injuries.

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    Mute Frank Delano
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    Apr 20th 2015, 10:29 AM

    What ‘head gear ‘ are you referring to exactly first , secondly i never said anything about stopping concussion . But what your saying is no protection is better then some protection .

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    Mute Luke Byrne
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    Apr 20th 2015, 8:00 PM

    It’s amazing the inaccuracy of people’s perception of the game (in terms of head injuries)… I believe 90% of head injuries in the game are concussive… Some then go on to result in second impact syndrome which is absolutely fatal (mostly in the amateur game) … It may seem a massive problem when it occurs but for the numbers of people and frequency of matches, both amateur and professional…. It’s a very rare occurance…. I believe that not much more can be done…. They are freak accidents…. Have a look at a documentary called ‘Head Games-The Global Concussion Crisis’

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    Mute George Stagg
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    Apr 20th 2015, 9:54 AM

    Get real people. .. with the way the game has been allowed to develop into one long series of train crashes, more and more players are going to be killed AND IT IS NOT THE RESULT OF FREAK ACCIDENTS it is because off the money involved.

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    Mute The Guru
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    Apr 20th 2015, 10:04 AM

    Yes you’re right, this amateur player playing for a team in remote regional NSW died because of the money. I sincerely hope you’re a troll but also worry about the kind of loser who’d troll on a story like this.

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    Mute George Stagg
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    Apr 20th 2015, 10:16 AM

    I’m a troll and you post under an alias…hmmmm
    Amateur my arse. Which of them are not playing to climb the ladder to where the lucre lies.. Look at what has happened to the players since the game went pro or has the human race suddenly developed a sub species who are all 25 stone mussle bound Olympic sprinters. I think it’s far more likely that chemistry is involved here somewhere .. Don’t you.

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    Mute The Guru
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    Apr 20th 2015, 10:32 AM

    This guy lived in Sydney but was home for the weekend to visit his parents and played for the local team while there for the love of the game. Much like plenty of Irish people do with GAA and other sports. I don’t think he thought he’d be getting called up to the Wallabies world cup squad.

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    Mute Eric Lensherr
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    Apr 20th 2015, 1:31 PM

    @The Guru- Don’t engage with this guy, he’s a dangerous cretin that enjoys trolling, not worth the time or energy.

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    Mute Robert
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    Apr 20th 2015, 2:11 PM

    @george stagg unless you’ve trained yourself with any serious dedication or worked with those who do, it will be hard to understand the levels you can take human performance to.

    The majority of the untrained public have absolutely no comprehension of the results that can be achieved from living & training under modern elite performance methods.

    there is an emerging couch potato brigade with no clue about training, who bang on about PEDs when they don’t understand what they’re looking at on the field.

    That being said, I suspect Rugby Union probably does have an underlying issue with PEDs in many regions – it would be foolish to suggest otherwise.

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    Mute George Stagg
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    Apr 20th 2015, 10:41 AM

    Look. . All my sympathy goes to the guys family and friends and i sincerely mean that. . I just think it needs to be said to avoid being a hypocricy that the way the game has gone more and more deaths and life defining injuries are inevitable.

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