The latest rugby news stories from Wales and the wider worldOwen Farrell has not been given an England contract(Image: PA Wire)

Here are your rugby morning headlines for Tuesday, August 12.

Owen Farrell in £150,000 England snub

England have overlooked Owen Farrell for an enhanced elite player contract despite his return to Saracens from France and impressive performances for the British and Irish Lions.

Farrell is missing from the 25-man list of England’s top players, while the likes of Fin Smith and Marcus Smith are included. The 34-year-old is expected to return to England duty this season after previously walking away from the international game in 2023 for personal reasons.

Henry Pollock, Fin Baxter, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ben Curry, Elliot Daly, Joe Heyes, Tom Roebuck, Will Stuart and Tom Willis are among those to take up enhanced Elite Player Squad (EPS) deals, which are reported to be worth £150,000.

The contracts, introduced last year, give England final say over players’ medical care and replace match fees with a fixed annual salary.

Saracens hooker Theo Dan is the only member of the inaugural group of 17 players not to have renewed terms.

Wing Henry Arundell, who has signed for Bath from Racing 92, is among those overlooked, in addition to Chandler Cunningham-South, Sam Underhill, Freddie Steward, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Seb Atkinson, Fraser Dingwall and scrum-halves Ben Spencer and Harry Randall.

“I am pleased to name the players who will receive an enhanced EPS contract this season,” Borthwick said.

“These contracts, together with our strong relationship with the Premiership clubs, will continue to play an important role in the ongoing development of England Rugby.”

England men’s enhanced Elite Player Squad contracts: Fin Baxter (Harlequins), Ollie Chessum (Leicester), Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale), Ben Curry (Sale), Tom Curry (Sale), Elliot Daly (Saracens), Ben Earl (Saracens), Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter), George Ford (Sale), Tommy Freeman (Northampton), George Furbank (Northampton), Ellis Genge (Bristol), Jamie George (Saracens), Joe Heyes (Leicester), Maro Itoje (Saracens), Ollie Lawrence (Bath), George Martin (Leicester), Alex Mitchell (Northampton), Henry Pollock (Northampton), Tom Roebuck (Sale), Henry Slade (Exeter), Fin Smith (Northampton), Marcus Smith (Harlequins), Will Stuart (Bath), Tom Willis (Saracens).

World Rugby announce change

Rugby union will introduce flashing LED mouthguards that light up when a player sustains a significant head impact during a match.

The mouthguard will flash red if the impact is severe enough to potentially cause a concussion. At that point, the referee will stop play, with the player going off for a head injury assessment.

The new system will be used for the first time at the Women’s Rugby World Cup, which begins next week, before being rolled out in the rest of the game.

“Match officials and players will be able to see that this player has sustained a big head impact because their mouth guard is flashing red,” said Dr Lindsay Starling, a science and medical manager at World Rugby.

“And it will create awareness about head injuries and concussions in the stands and for fans at home, being able to see it on TV.”

Every player at the Women’s World Cup, other than two who wear braces, will be wearing the new mouthguards, according to World Rugby’s chief medical officer, Dr Éanna Falvey.

He added that was significantly higher than for the men’s game, in which around 85% of players wear smart mouthguards.

“It would be great for the game,” said Falvey about players embracing the new mouthguards. “But personal choice is an important thing, autonomy is an important thing.”

The mouthguards work by measuring how much a player’s head moves up and down and rotates during a collision. When it registers a certain acceleration – above 75g and 4,500 radians per second squared for men and 65gs and 4,500 rad/s2 for women – it will start flashing.

The current system uses Bluetooth to alert the match-day doctor, which can take several seconds to arrive.

Rugby ‘rife for a revolution’ – Cheika

Former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika says rugby is “ripe for a revolution”, but admits he’s not sold on the R360 competition that is chasing a number of high-profile players.

The rebel league, being led by former England centre Mike Tindall, has targeted a host of Test-level players and is now moving onto coaches – with Cheika understood to be on their shortlist.

However, the man himself isn’t convinced the league will take off.

“Look, I think that rugby seems to be a bit ripe for a bit of a revolution,” Cheika told Fox Sports’ NRL 360.

“The players that are in this particular, I suppose, iteration of it, they’re coming in a slightly different way. I don’t think they’ve got a big broadcaster with them or anything. I think they’re trying to build the comp and then take it to someone else, so a lot of it’s conditional work at the moment.

“I think the idea, the concept of something new, is right. I think it’s there for the opportunity. Whether these guys can pull it off, I’m not 100 per cent sure, because I’d like to see something a bit more solid, broadcaster, that type of momentum behind it as well … but look, I think it rustles the feathers, not too bad.”