Two moves to protect rugby players from head injury appear to be working with just six weeks of new rules in Hawke's Bay.
While it's considered too early to draw real conclusions, referees especially trained to recognise symptoms of concussion have issued just five of the new blue cards which direct automatic three-week stand-downs for players taking knocks to the head.
But it's possible one factor may be a record number of 10-minute sin-bin yellow cards as the game takes a harder line on high tackles, the more than 70 issued being about three times many as in the earlier stages of last season.
Hawke's Bay Rugby Union club rugby manager Gary Macdonald yesterday agreed that with the number of blue cards not as significant as some feared, the two statistics could be related, as players and team management get the messages on head-injury prevention.
He was aware teams and officials had worried about a possible escalation in numbers of players having to leave the field with head injury. "But that hasn't happened," he said.
One blue card had been issued in each of the first three weekends of club rugby, which started on March 25, and two more were issued in colts matches on Saturday.
He said in one case he had received a call from a club official concerned that a player issued with a blue card had not "really been concussed."
But the union will stand by the trained referees, and a system which means a player is out for at least 21 days with need for a union-paid clearance from a doctor.
Earlier this year the New Zealand Union announced plans for a $7 million extension of its injury prevention RugbySmart programme, amid concerns that rugby injuries are costing about $67m in ACC and other expenses.