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Ghana Rugby’s President, Mr Herbert Mensah, has initiated the first step towards the development of a comprehensive player safety and welfare programme by appointing a task team to elaborate on the establishment of an “EagleWise - Safety Through Wisdom” programme for Ghana.

The importance of PLAYER SAFETY in today’s world of Rugby Union can never be underestimated or taken too seriously.

Player injuries is without doubt one of the most important threats facing the Game of Rugby Union and this is reflected in the almost continuous changes of the Laws of Rugby Union and the constant stream of new law trials.

A few of the Tier 1 Unions have tackled this issue with comprehensive ‘branded’ programmes such as BokSmart (South Africa), World Rugby Activate (Australia), RugbySafe (England) and RugbySmart (New Zealand).

Under the guidance of Ghana Rugby’s President and Board Chairman, Mr Herbert Mensah, a “EagleWise - Safety Through Wisdom”  Task Team has been appointed to investigate the establishment of a player safety and welfare programme that will ensure that the issue of player safety and welfare will receive the appropriate level of attention at all levels with the Ghana Rugby domain.

According to Mensah the mandate of the ‘EagleWise’ Task Team is no different from the mandate used to establish BokSmart in South Africa, and can be described as:

‘The main focus areas of the programme must be injury prevention, injury management, rugby safety, and player performance with specific attention on serious and catastrophic head, neck and spine injuries. Coach and referee education must form the main intervention of the programme, with the development and provision of evidence-based medical protocols, the development and implementation of appropriate rugby safety regulations, the monitoring and research analyses of demographics and serious injury trends, and effective marketing and communication of the above assisting in the educational and strategic implementation process.”

In launching the initiative from his home in the UK Mensah said, “Ghana Rugby is about building character through the values of rugby that include passion, integrity, solidarity, respect and discipline. Rugby is primarily about a passion to enjoy and to excel, but we will not be doing fulfilling our duty if we do not address the threat of serious and catastrophic head, neck and spine injuries. Ghana Rugby will do this under the banner of “EagleWise” with basically the same mission of BokSmart in South Africa, namely “#VisionZero - One Is Too Many”