Anthony Watson Admits to Cheating Head Injury Assessment
Former British and Irish Lions player Anthony Watson has revealed that he cheated on a head injury assessment during the second test of the 2017 series in New Zealand. Watson, 32, admitted to having cheated on a part of the test designed to verify the players’ memory, by previously memorizing a list of five words. The incident occurred after Watson suffered a strong tackle from Sonny Bill Williams, which resulted in a red card for the All Blacks star. In a new BBC documentary, “Ben Youngs Investigates: How Safe Is Rugby?”, Watson confessed that his intention was to return to the field as soon as possible.Watson explained that he knew the protocols and the words he had to remember: “elbow-apple-carpet-saddle-bubble”. Despite feeling affected, he managed to overcome the physical tests and, remembering the words, he knew he could return to the game. Watson returned to the field for the rest of the match and also participated in most of the decisive encounter at Eden Park a week later, which ended in a draw. Since then, the recall component in head injury assessments has changed to include a more random method, making memorizing a prior set of words insufficient.I knew the impact was strong and when starting the protocol, I started to feel a little confused.
Anthony Watson
