Trending
Carlo Tizzano and Jac Morgan collide at the breakdown.Credit: Stan Rugby
Dr Starling stressed that the mouthguards should not be regarded as concussion detection devices. This is because impacts this large do not necessarily yield a concussion diagnosis, whereas smaller impacts might do so.
Dr Eanna Falvey, the chief medical officer at World Rugby, explained that there has been “full opt-in” from players ahead of this year’s Women’s World Cup, which begins on August 22 when England take on the United States in Sunderland. Currently, players who choose not to wear a mouthguard do not have access to the in-game assessment, although this has not stopped some from declining to use one.
Dr Falvey would love to see the tool become mandatory, though conceded that “personal choice is an important thing”. “I think, with the way it’s going, it will be ubiquitous pretty soon,” he added.
World Rugby is comparing data with the NFL in the US, and there are pilot programmes for smart mouthguards taking place in the NRL and AFL.
Dr Starling said that broadcasters have inquired about airing the g-forces of big tackles during matches. These proposals have been turned down so far because of medical confidentiality, yet could come to screens in future.
“It’s classified as medical data about a player, and so therefore we can’t share those numbers anywhere,” said Dr Starling. “But we’re working with the players to get them on board to want to share that information.
The mouthguards will flash red to indicate heavy impact.Credit: Getty/Supplied
“There is a very fine line between big and being safe and correct and the player being looked after. Because big isn’t always good; sometimes it’s bad.”
Highlighting foul play could be another potential benefit to the LED mouthguards. “It’s definitely something that’s been popping up over the last year where there have been incidents,” said Dr Starling.
“The thing that’s quite hard is sometimes small knocks are also bad and so you could easily have a foul-play incident that actually hasn’t caused much of a knock. What we need to be careful not to do is over-rely on the data.
“I think there is a world in which the data from the mouthguard can start to come into play a little bit more with foul play, but what I think everybody needs to understand is that in the same way a player can get concussed from a pretty small head impact, foul play [can have occurred] without registering anything substantial.”
LED mouthguards currently cost about $400 and require a custom dental scan.
London Daily Telegraph
Carlo Tizzano and Jac Morgan collide at the breakdown.Credit: Stan Rugby
Dr Starling stressed that the mouthguards should not be regarded as concussion detection devices. This is because impacts this large do not necessarily yield a concussion diagnosis, whereas smaller impacts might do so.
Dr Eanna Falvey, the chief medical officer at World Rugby, explained that there has been “full opt-in” from players ahead of this year’s Women’s World Cup, which begins on August 22 when England take on the United States in Sunderland. Currently, players who choose not to wear a mouthguard do not have access to the in-game assessment, although this has not stopped some from declining to use one.
Dr Falvey would love to see the tool become mandatory, though conceded that “personal choice is an important thing”. “I think, with the way it’s going, it will be ubiquitous pretty soon,” he added.
World Rugby is comparing data with the NFL in the US, and there are pilot programmes for smart mouthguards taking place in the NRL and AFL.
Dr Starling said that broadcasters have inquired about airing the g-forces of big tackles during matches. These proposals have been turned down so far because of medical confidentiality, yet could come to screens in future.
“It’s classified as medical data about a player, and so therefore we can’t share those numbers anywhere,” said Dr Starling. “But we’re working with the players to get them on board to want to share that information.
The mouthguards will flash red to indicate heavy impact.Credit: Getty/Supplied
“There is a very fine line between big and being safe and correct and the player being looked after. Because big isn’t always good; sometimes it’s bad.”
Highlighting foul play could be another potential benefit to the LED mouthguards. “It’s definitely something that’s been popping up over the last year where there have been incidents,” said Dr Starling.
“The thing that’s quite hard is sometimes small knocks are also bad and so you could easily have a foul-play incident that actually hasn’t caused much of a knock. What we need to be careful not to do is over-rely on the data.
“I think there is a world in which the data from the mouthguard can start to come into play a little bit more with foul play, but what I think everybody needs to understand is that in the same way a player can get concussed from a pretty small head impact, foul play [can have occurred] without registering anything substantial.”
LED mouthguards currently cost about $400 and require a custom dental scan.
London Daily Telegraph
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
The Us Media 2025
