Ex-British & Irish Lions player Anthony Watson admits to bypassing head-injury evaluation against New Zealand.

Former British and Irish Lions winger Anthony Watson has stated that he circumvented a head injury assessment during the second Test of the 2017 series in New Zealand.

The 32-year-old indicated that he successfully completed a segment of the assessment aimed at evaluating a player’s memory by having previously memorized a list of five words.

Watson had been brought down by a high tackle from Sonny Bill Williams, which resulted in a red card for the All Blacks player.

In a recent BBC documentary titled “Ben Youngs Investigates: How Safe Is Rugby?”, Watson confessed that his goal was to return to the field as quickly as possible.

“I was aware the impact was significant, and as I began the protocol, I started to feel somewhat disoriented,” he remarked.

“At that point, I was familiar with the protocols — they provide you with five words to remember: ‘elbow-apple-carpet-saddle-bubble’. That was my list.

“I was able to complete the walking tests and everything else, and when it came to the words, I recalled them perfectly, so I knew I would be back on the field right away.”

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Watson re-entered the game for the remainder of the match and also participated in most of the drawn decider at Eden Park a week later.

The recall aspect of head injury assessments has since been modified to include a more randomized approach, meaning that merely memorizing a predetermined set of words is no longer sufficient.