Rfl Partners With Leeds Beckett University For Head Injury Study

13 Apr 2021 | tshego

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The RFL has announced that it will partner with Leeds Beckett University to launch a pilot research programme to ‘quantify the risk’ of head impact in the sport.

All 12 Betfred Super League clubs will work with the league and the university on the Instrumented Mouthguard Project, which aims to increase understanding of head injury and reduce future risk.

The RFL says the programme is intended to cover more than 1,200 players across 50 teams across all levels – men’s, women’s, academy, and grassroots. The pilots will run from May this year to August in a bid to inform which instrumented mouthguards are selected for the main project, which will begin in November 2021 and run for three years.

The project will align with existing injury surveillance already carried out by the RFL, and will aim to quantify player load profiles, answer how tackle technique and height influences head impacts in the sport, and shed light on the ‘biomechanical mechanisms’ that take place during ‘concussion events’ in Rugby League.

“In Rugby League as in other sports, there is widespread recognition of the need to maximise our understanding of the impact of head collisions. Mouthguard technology has recently developed rapidly, allowing valid measures of head impacts and movement,” said Professor Ben Jones, the lead researcher from Leeds Beckett University and Head of Performance at the RFL’s England Performance Unit.

“Instrumented mouthguards are already being used by some clubs in Rugby League (with Leeds Rhinos using them since 2020 and Salford Red Devils starting to use them for the 2021 Season); however, a game-wide project will enable a better understanding across different levels of the sport with a bigger data set.”

Karen Moorhouse, Chief Regulatory Officer, the RFL, added: “The wellbeing of players is a top priority of the RFL and clubs. The RFL has protocols across the game in relation to concussion (covering recognition, removal and rehabilitation) with the aim of protecting the welfare and health of players. These protocols have evolved as a result of increased knowledge of concussions. The RFL sees this project (and the ability to make evidence-based decisions on the basis of the outcomes) as an important next step in the understanding of head impacts and has committed to it for the benefit of current and future players.”