George North should not have been let back onto the field on Friday night; we are all in agreement there.
As 109 kg of muscle limply hit the Millennium Stadium turf last Friday, most viewers missed the incident until the slow-motion replay.
It obviously looks worse in slow-motion but it allowed us to see the damaged sustained by the giant winger.
World Rugby should have made this the precedent case for head injuries to show the rugby world exactly how they should be treated.
The WRU have said that their medics did not see the incident as their physios and head injury assessors do not have access to replays at pitch side. However, Warren Gatland and his coaching staff do, it was well within the powers of Wales to take him off the field of play.
World Rugby have accepted the apology of the doctors at pitch side but reiterated that he should not have remained on the playing field.
Yet, if they had fined the WRU or given an on-field punishment, the rugby community would know where it stood on concussions.
Sadly in the world of professional sport, George North is a valuable asset to Wales and will remain on the pitch as long as possible. Gatland is part of this issue as he could have brought him off at any point in the last twenty minutes but he wanted his best players on the pitch.
If World Rugby fined Wales for this mistake I have no doubts that if a similar incident happened in this weekend’s game the player will be removed from the game immediately.
It shouldn’t be this way, of course, but with each incident that occurs and is not dealt with Rugby Union as a sport is moving closer to a very serious injury.
It should be just as it is in Rugby League; fans of Super League have seen Willie Tonga of Catalan Dragons go down with seconds on the clock. The physios took their time and stretchered Tonga off the pitch.
Once again it is important to stress the WRU did follow the correct procedure World Rugby has stated.
Yet, a man who was concussed twice, was allowed to stay on the rugby field, does that sound like the right procedure?
As Rugby Union gets more professional players are getting bigger and stronger these incidents are more regular and getting worse.
If a precedent is not set soon, which takes the player from the field of play without too much damage, then one day there will be a truly terrible incident which causes a player to retire or possibly worse.
The macho nature of rugby union is putting players at risk, it doesn’t matter how big, strong, powerful or quick a player is they still have one skull and one brain.
The stage was set to use the North case as a precedent, it was a big game and the replays would have supported World Rugby’s cause. North is also a big name, playing for one of the world’s best teams, this would have sent a message across the world of rugby.
In a World Cup year, World Rugby has missed a chance to set a precedent before the biggest competition in the Rugby calendar kicks off.
Here’s hoping that they don’t seriously regret this decision in six months’ time when the eyes of the world will be on rugby union.
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