Rugby World Cup<\/a>, which begins next week, before being rolled out in the rest of the game.<\/p>\n\u201cMatch officials and players will be able to see that this player has sustained a big head impact because their mouth guard is flashing red,\u201d said Dr Lindsay Starling, a science and medical manager at World Rugby.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it will create awareness about head injuries and concussions in the stands and for fans at home, being able to see it on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u00c9anna Falvey.<\/p>\n
He added that was significantly higher than for the men\u2019s game, in which around 85% of players wear smart mouthguards.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mouthguards work by measuring how much a player\u2019s 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 \u2013 it will start flashing.<\/p>\n
The current system uses Bluetooth to alert the match-day doctor, which can take several seconds to arrive.<\/p>\n
Rugby ‘rife for a revolution’ – Cheika<\/p>\n
Former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika says rugby is \u201cripe for a revolution\u201d, but admits he\u2019s not sold on the R360 competition that is chasing a number of high-profile players.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
However, the man himself isn’t convinced the league will take off.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I think that rugby seems to be a bit ripe for a bit of a revolution,\u201d Cheika told Fox Sports\u2019 NRL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players that are in this particular, I suppose, iteration of it, they\u2019re coming in a slightly different way. I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve got a big broadcaster with them or anything. I think they\u2019re trying to build the comp and then take it to someone else, so a lot of it\u2019s conditional work at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the idea, the concept of something new, is right. I think it\u2019s there for the opportunity. Whether these guys can pull it off, I\u2019m not 100 per cent sure, because I\u2019d like to see something a bit more solid, broadcaster, that type of momentum behind it as well \u2026 but look, I think it rustles the feathers, not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest rugby news stories from Wales and the wider worldOwen Farrell has not been given an England…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[9017,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-61261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-owen-farrell","9":"tag-rugby","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS375892649.jpg\")
Owen Farrell has not been given an England contract(Image: PA Wire)<\/p>\n