2023-10-09 20:30:50
World Rugby announced this Monday the test of “smart” mouthguards during a women’s tournament.
The international rugby federation announced on Monday the test during a women’s tournament, before their adoption, of mouthguards “intelligent», which should make it possible to transmit alerts during the match in the event of a significant impact or violent jolt to the head.
«World Rugby will evolve the Head Injury Assessment (HIA) protocol by incorporating in-match alerts using smart mouthguard technology to show if a player has suffered a high level of injury. shaking that could lead to injury», Wrote the federation in a press release.
«The new protocol and new technology will be tested during the WXV elite women’s tournament (a new international women’s competition, Editor’s note) from October, and will be integrated into the assessment of head injuries from January 2024“, she continues. The tests will therefore begin at “WXV“, a “new international women’s rugby union competition designed to increase the competitiveness, reach and impact of elite women’s rugby» according to World rugby, which will start in October.
Concretely, the alerts are transmitted to an independent doctor in real time at the time of the match. World Rugby will invest two million euros in this new technology, developed by the American company Prevent Biometrics.
«This innovation is part of a wider set of changes being advocated at World Rugby by its independent concussion working group», Adds the federation. Among these recommendations, encouraging rugby players at all levels to wear a mouthguard and extending the period of unavailability of amateur players after a concussion to 21 days.
«The latest scientific studies and expert opinions tell us one thing: the need to reduce the shaking that players experience on their heads at all levels of rugby. This is exactly what we do“, greeted World Rugby’s chief medical officer, Eanna Falvey, quoted in the press release. The issue of player health, and in particular that of concussions, has been increasingly present in recent years in rugby, and sport in general.
It is notably at the heart of the possible return to competition of the scrum half and captain of the XV of France Antoine Dupont for the quarter-final of the World Cup against South Africa on Sunday: victim of a violent shock to the head on September 21 against Namibia, Dupont had surgery the next day, and on Monday he obtained the green light from his surgeon to resume training, and therefore contact rugby.
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