Platform: We need schools' help to make rugby a safer sport

With such a low incidence it is difficult to identify trends after only one season, and excluded are any cases at other hospitals where spinal fractures without spinal cord injury are treated. While these numbers are also likely to be small, this can only be assumed from the very few studies that have looked at both injuries together.

The Rugby Injury Group, consisting of four senior orthopaedic surgeons and two senior physiotherapists and sanctioned by the Scottish committee in orthopaedics and trauma to investigate rugby injuries in schoolboys, has given the Scottish Rugby Union advice regarding the avoidance of mismatch between players. It was initially based on the only relevant literature available, from North America.

This season's advice has been modified after assessment of more than 160 schoolboys last season, studying neck strength, grip strength and various measures of flexibility and growth. Further testing has been performed on 100 boys this season. The intention has always been to try and bring some science to what is a very emotive subject.

To be able to celebrate a genuine reduction in "significant" injuries as a whole and to confirm that the game is indeed safer, we need more evidence. No comparative data exists, for example, on knee ligament and shoulder instability. It is impossible to say with confidence whether injuries as a whole are increasing or decreasing until they are properly recorded.

An injury reporting system exists through the SRU, but to be of any value clubs and schools must participate in it. It is also important that any such data collected be fed back to those who provide it. Only through proper injury recording and analysis will it be possible to identify injury trends, monitor laws and techniques and ensure the game is as safe as possible.

• Jamie Maclean FRCS is an orthopaedic surgeon with NHS Tayside