The decision to introduce a major law change to the 2025 Six Nations yet again shows that rugby bosses’ comments about wanting to protect players is “b*******t”, a former Wales star has told GB News.
Alix Popham, who received 33 caps for Wales between 2003 and 2008, opened up about the challenges facing the sport as rugby prepares for another step in a landmark legal battle today.
A law firm representing around 300 former union and league players will start providing evidence today in a two-day case management hearing after rugby stars were left battling with life-altering severe neurological injuries.
Popham, 45, was diagnosed with dementia in 2020, just nine-years after hanging up his boots following stints at Newport, Leeds Tykes, the Llanelli Scarlets and Brive.
Ntamack’s hit on Thomas resulted in a red card
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Doctors estimate the father-of-three suffered 100,000 sub-concussions over the course of his 14-year professional career, leading to Popham setting up the charity Head for Change to highlight the serious consequences of traumatic brain injuries in sport.
Speaking to the People’s Channel ahead of today’s case management hearing, Popham said: “What they [rugby bosses] are saying is b******t. It’s smoke and mirrors. I’m sick to death of them talking about player safety when it is total and utter rubbish. All they care about is the product.
“They’ve brought in the 20 minute red card. That shows, yet again, that the product is the number one priority, not the player’s health. If it’s not a full red card and you’ve got another player back on after 20 minutes, then the punishment for that red carded player just isn’t that bad. Players will just continue doing it.”
The first 20 minute red card in Six Nations history was dished out on Friday night during Wales’s woeful 43-0 defeat at the hands of France in Paris.
French fly-half Romain Ntamack, 25, was sent-off in the 71st minute for a headshot against 26-year-old Welsh stand-off Ben Thomas.
Ntamack was removed from the field but a replacement back could have taken his play if more time was left on the clock as the challenge was deemed “unintentional”.
Discussing the cheap shot, Popham said: “I think that particular incident was because earlier on Ben put in a powerful and perfectly legal hit on Ntamack.
“He was looking for his own back and that was what happened. But it’s just the whole picture around these things, especially with returning players so early.”
Ahead of the opening fixture of the 2025 Six Nations, the Irish Rugby Football Union and French Rugby Federation voiced opposition to the new law.
The IRFU claimed that prioritising player welfare should remain “paramount” before the FFR described the decision to introduce 20 minute red cards as an “unacceptable step backwards”.
Six Nations Rugby defended the trial, citing a “game-wide commitment to enhance the spectacle for fans” while maintaining player safety standards.
Six Nations chief of rugby Julie Paterson said: “Everyone is working together to ensure we are exploring new and innovative ways to make the game as safe as possible, alongside ambitions to enhance the spectacle for fans.”
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Alix Popham received 33 caps for Wales
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However, an incident from Ireland’s 27-22 victory over England on Saturday also raised alarm bells for Popham.
Ireland star Caelan Doris, 26, appeared to make head contact on English flanker Tom Curry during the Millennium Trophy match in Dublin.
“All the spectators see it at home but the independent expert and TMO misses a shot like that,” Popham said.
Curry, 26, who has already been capped 57 times by England, has suffered from a series of head injuries during his playing career.
The Sale Sharks star was left concussed in England’s defeat against Australia in the autumn, with the 26-year-old making his return to Twickenham’s turf to face Japan just a fortnight later.
Curry has suffered from five head injuries in less than three years, with the capped British & Irish Lion even being forced to fly home from England’s 2022 tour Down Under early.
Popham, who labelled the ongoing traumatic brain injury crisis a “scandal”, told GB News: “Curry would have had three months out in boxing [after November’s head injury] but came back two weeks later after his second head injury of the season. It’s so wrong and I doubt if it was their child they’d do exactly the same.”
He added: “If they’re putting player safety first, how comes Tom Curry has had five knock-outs in the last five years? Ninety-nine per cent of the world’s neurologists would say he should retire, and the one per cent who are involved with sport, paid by sport, say it’s okay for him to play.”
The decision to introduce the 20 minute red card law to the Six Nations comes just 12 months after smart gumshields were used in the championship for the first time.
However, experts warn that the technology’s fails to record great levels of detail on collisions above 60Gs, despite NFL players diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries sustaining hits between 40G and 150G.
Popham said: “60G is still a massive hit but anything above that doesn’t go properly recorded which is b****y crazy. They seem to be missing a lot of these bigger hits that are going on. I think it’s just more smoke and mirrors to show they’re doing something but it’s not really fit for purpose.”
Popham also put forward other suggestions for how rugby bosses could prioritise player safety.
A tackle appeared high on England’s Tom Curry during Saturday’s Dublin clash
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Much has been made of how international powerhouses utilise totemic benches of up to six forward replacements weighing in at nearly 800kgs, with South Africa’s “bomb squad” helping the Springboks claim victory in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final.
Despite Springbok mastermind Rassie Erasmus perhaps being the main proponent of the so-called six-two split, the same strategic model was adopted by France, Italy and England over the weekend.
“A player, in my eyes, should only come off if they’re injured,” Popham claimed.
The 2008 Grand Slam winner added: “That would then enable the team that starts to last the whole 80 minutes, unless there’s an injury that would mean they would need to reduce in size so the impacts wouldn’t be as large as they are currently.”
However, Popham suggested that a key area where rugby can learn from American Football is on the training paddock.
“What we’ve got to remember as well is we’re not just looking at the game on a Saturday,” the 45-year-old said. “That is 15 per cent of a player’s career. Most of the contact and damage done to myself and to the rest of the men and women, was done in training.”
Popham also argued that guidelines around limiting contact sessions were not being followed.
He claimed: “This is where, still, there’s guidelines in place but nobody is sticking to those guidelines. It needs to be made mandatory, like the NFL did 15 years ago, that you’re only allowed 14 padded sessions a season. A rugby player could do that currently in a month to six weeks.”
The Newport-born former back-row forward added: “We’ve got to look at the players’ dosage over their career, like the mileage on a car, and until we get that into people’s bloody brains, we’re going to be in exactly the same position. At the moment there’s close to 1,000 players diagnosed. That number is only the tip of the iceberg.”
World Rugby put forward its “recommended” limit on contact training sessions in 2021 but failed to impose the same strict code that was adopted by the NFL.
GB News has approached World Rugby and the Six Nations for comment.