Head Acceleration Events During Tackle, Ball-Carry, and Ruck Events in Professional Southern Hemisphere Men's Rugby Union Matches : A Study Using Instrumented Mouthguards

Journal article

Roe, Gregory A. B., Sawczuk, Thomas, Owen, Cameron, Tooby, James, Starling, Lindsay, Gilthorpe, Mark S., Falvey, E, Hendricks, Sharief, Rasmussen, Karen, Readhead, Clint, Salmon, Danielle, Stokes, Keith A., Tucker, Ross and Jones, Ben. (2024). Head Acceleration Events During Tackle, Ball-Carry, and Ruck Events in Professional Southern Hemisphere Men's Rugby Union Matches : A Study Using Instrumented Mouthguards. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 34(6), pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.14676
AuthorsRoe, Gregory A. B., Sawczuk, Thomas, Owen, Cameron, Tooby, James, Starling, Lindsay, Gilthorpe, Mark S., Falvey, E, Hendricks, Sharief, Rasmussen, Karen, Readhead, Clint, Salmon, Danielle, Stokes, Keith A., Tucker, Ross and Jones, Ben
Abstract

Objectives: Describe head acceleration events (HAEs) experienced by professional male rugby union players during tackle, ball-carry, and ruck events using instrumented mouthguards (iMGs).

Design: Prospective observational cohort.

Methods: Players competing in the 2023 Currie Cup (141 players) and Super Rugby (66 players) seasons wore iMGs. The iMG-recorded peak linear acceleration (PLA) and peak angular acceleration (PAA) were used as in vivo HAE approximations and linked to contact-event data captured using video analysis. Using the maximum PLA and PAA per contact event (HAEmax), ordinal mixed-effects regression models estimated the probabilities of HAEmax magnitude ranges occurring, while accounting for the multilevel data structure.

Results: As HAEmax magnitude increased the probability of occurrence decreased. The probability of a HAEmax ≥15g was 0.461 (0.435–0.488) (approximately 1 in every 2) and ≥45g was 0.031 (0.025–0.037) (1 in every 32) during ball carries. The probability of a HAEmax >15g was 0.381 (0.360–0.404) (1 in every 3) and >45g 0.019 (0.015–0.023) (1 in every 53) during tackles. The probability of higher magnitude HAEmax occurring was greatest during ball carries, followed by tackles, defensive rucks and attacking rucks, with some ruck types having similar profiles to tackles and ball carries. No clear differences between positions were observed.

Conclusion: Higher magnitude HAEmax were relatively infrequent in professional men's rugby union players. Contact events appear different, but no differences were found between positions. The occurrence of HAEmax was associated with roles players performed within contact events, not their actual playing position. Defending rucks may warrant greater consideration in injury prevention research.

Keywordsathlete health; collision sport; concussion; injury prevention; instrumented mouthguards; monitoring
Year01 Jan 2024
JournalScandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports
Journal citation34 (6), pp. 1-9
PublisherJohn Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISSN0905-7188
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.14676
Web address (URL)https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sms.14676
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range1-9
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License
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Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online12 Jun 2024
Publication process dates
Accepted27 May 2024
Deposited20 Jan 2025
Additional information

© 2024 The Author(s). Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science In Sports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Place of publicationDenmark
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