New study comparing rugby headguards

[drc_007]

https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/4/1/e000361

Results Each headguard demonstrated a significant decrease in the mean peak acceleration from the baseline value (all p≤0.01). Overall the Canterbury Ventilator was the most effective headguard, decreasing the impact force on average by 47%. The least effective was the XBlades Elite headguard, averaging a force reduction of 27%. In five of the seven headguards, the right side of the headwear was the most effective at reducing impact force.

Study from Institute of Motion Analysis Research (IMAR), Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, TORT Centre, Ninewells Hospital & Medical School, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland

[ellis9]

I couldn't be bothered to read the article. Sorry but it was too boring. If players took responsibility for their tackle technique, we wouldn't need to look at what scientists have worked out.

[JP14]

I’m sorry but encouraging everyone to wear headguards will have an NFL effect and that will increase concussions, headguards should remain a choice.

[fortysix]

Sooner rather than later ,Insurance will have a say, especially if claims are reduced by 47% !!

Joking apart, all Cricketers now wear helmets and it is rational to predict the same for Union.

[JackFlashJonny]

The study is a complete farce....dropping a doll with or without a headguard is an absurd study and I can't believe they have published it with drop tests as a guide of whether the impact is lesser

It is widely known that this has little material impact in the kind of collisions that cause brain injury and the ones we want to protect people against.

I personally feel rugby has gone completely the wrong way, I have seen far more people knocked out due to low tackles being hit by the knee/shin of the player they are trying to tackle than I ever have from a high tackle!

[Mark62]

There was a study in The Lancet a few years ago which showed an increase in the number of injuries since the introduction of padding and head guards because players feel protected and therefore their technique is lacking and their head/body is put in dangerous positions.

2 best sides in the world at the moment, New Zealand and Ireland and I can only think of Sean O’Brien who wears a head guard

[DingDong]

To say a headguard can reduce impact by up to 47% in not just misleading but also irresponsible. The tests were not in context of a game therefore actual kinetic/dynamic energy is not properly measured. This report will only fuel sales to the parents for little Jonny to wear on a Sunday. Headguards are useful for the bleeders, but they still won't reduce impact injuries to the head, neck etc if the technique is poor!

[jgriffin]

There are a lot of contrecoup situations where the head is not hit directly but wobbled, which causes bilateral brain injury. Headguards do zero, as they would with lateral direct hits. What is needed is proper testing - not hard to design but costly - and also get heads out of the way of shoulders as well as the opposite, I.e. binding not charging at rucks.

[JP14]

There was a study in The Lancet a few years ago which showed an increase in the number of injuries since the introduction of padding and head guards because players feel protected and therefore their technique is lacking and their head/body is put in dangerous positions.

2 best sides in the world at the moment, New Zealand and Ireland and I can only think of Sean O’Brien who wears a head guard

I believe Matt Todd does, but apart from that you are appear to be right!

[Mark62]

There was a study in The Lancet a few years ago which showed an increase in the number of injuries since the introduction of padding and head guards because players feel protected and therefore their technique is lacking and their head/body is put in dangerous positions.

2 best sides in the world at the moment, New Zealand and Ireland and I can only think of Sean O’Brien who wears a head guard

I believe Matt Todd does, but apart from that you are appear to be right!

Hardly a regular these days if Cane and Savea are both fit

[Tiger_in_Birmingham]

More importantly when did scrum caps start being called head guards?

The point of a scrum cap is to protect the ears of players in the scrum and maybe a reduction in the risk of cuts, they offer no (formal) protection at all from concussion because they're not designed to

[wormus]

Sooner rather than later ,Insurance will have a say, especially if claims are reduced by 47% !!

Joking apart, all Cricketers now wear helmets and it is rational to predict the same for Union.

Are they saying that if protectors are worn then injuries need not occur?
After all it took cricket 100 years to graduate from a "Nutbox!" to head protection.

[Hot_Charlie]

A head guard will do nothing when someone has their neck broken of suffers a fatal basal skull fracture during an exocet ruck clearance. It's just a matter of time, and bad luck, just as cricketer Philip Hughes injury was. Unless the "ruck" (it isn't a ruck anymore) is refereed properly and safely soon then I'd put money on it happening within 3-5 years somewhere within the elite game.

Today's Guardian article featuring Ben Ryan makes some excellent points.

[jgriffin]

A head guard will do nothing when someone has their neck broken of suffers a fatal basal skull fracture during an exocet ruck clearance. It's just a matter of time, and bad luck, just as cricketer Philip Hughes injury was. Unless the "ruck" (it isn't a ruck anymore) is refereed properly and safely soon then I'd put money on it happening within 3-5 years somewhere within the elite game.

Today's Guardian article featuring Ben Ryan makes some excellent points.

Agree 100% , have fulminated about the 'breakdown' for a few years, more specifically 'clearance' which used to involve grasping, not arriving in mid-air shoulder first - something brought to the UK by NZ visitors in Pro12 originally.