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World Rugby respond to Gregor Townsend's mouthguard tech concerns
World Rugby’s Lindsay Starling has underlined the governing body’s confidence in data provided by new smart mouthguards after Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend voiced concerns over the technology.
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Townsend spoke out after last Saturday’s Calcutta Cup victory over England when a second Scottish player in successive matches went off for a head injury assessment that was triggered by mouthguard technology.
“I think we have to really watch what we are doing here by trusting technology that has not been proven,” Townsend said. “There is a bit more work to do before this technology is correct.”
World Rugby’s science and medical manager Starling has now explained that seven players in this season’s Guinness Six Nations have been removed from the field purely due to alerts from mouthguards.
The technology features an accelerometer and gyroscope to measure the magnitude and frequency of head acceleration events experienced by players during a game.
"Just a normal tackle. We have to really watch what we are doing here…"
– Scotland boss Gregor Townsend on the mouthguard alert that resulted in Zander Fagerson going off for 10 minutes early on versus England. #SCOvENG #ScotlandRugby #GuinnessM6N pic.twitter.com/uqvp4mJhdQ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 25, 2024
The Six Nations is the first elite men’s competition to use the technology, which is designed to help with identifying a need for head injury assessments and provide in-game alerts to medical teams.
Starling, who leads the mouthguard project for World Rugby, said that those seven players had the biggest impacts out of 9,500 head accelerations in nine games so far. “That is to put it into perspective regarding how rare and small these numbers are in terms of the players coming off,” she said.
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“For a player to be removed, it means they have sustained a really big knock. We are confident in the data that comes from the mouthguards and confident in the technology. We wouldn’t be introducing this on such a large scale if we weren’t confident in the data that is coming from them.
“From research we have done over the last few years, we have essentially identified a threshold whereby any impact that is occurring to a player above that threshold, it is very likely that the player displays signs of clinical concussion. Past this (threshold), the players are sustaining really big impacts. They are in the top 0.1 per cent of impact events.
“When a player is being removed during a match because of a notification that has come from the mouthguard, that is because the player has sustained an impact above this threshold and needs to be removed and checked out by a medical professional.
“We see this as a real game-changer. It enables us to understand information about the players that we have never known before and cannot know just from observing. We have known for the last decade-plus that concussion is a topic that requires a huge amount of attention.
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“Over the last few years that narrative has changed slightly to encompass all head-impact events, all head-acceleration events, not just those that manifest in clinical symptoms such as concussion.”
Mouthguards are also being used in the southern hemisphere’s ongoing Super Rugby Pacific competition, while the forthcoming women’s Six Nations will utilise them in addition to the men’s and women’s sevens competitions at the Paris Olympics.
Starling added: “Anything of this magnitude requires time and a huge part of this is around education that needs to be done with all stakeholders in the game. This year we will be instrumenting over 8,000 rugby players with this technology. Everyone does understand why this is being done, and that is purely for the welfare of players.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
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