Otago Rugby Football Club has teamed up with the University of Otago to explore the connection between neck strength and concussion.
The ground-breaking study will focus on sensors placed behind the players’ ears and will log information allowing them to assess whether or not the neck muscles reduce the acceleration forces of the head during contact.
The devices, no larger than a $2 coin, will be worn during practice sessions and throughout the club’s five home matches this season, two of which have already taken place.
A University of Otago press release notes that this has never been done at professional or even semi-professional level in New Zealand, but it has been conducted on American Football, where it was found that increased neck strength could reduce the likelihood that a player would sustain concussion.
Dr Danielle Salmon, Research Fellow at Otago University’s School of Physical Education and Exercise Sciences, spoke of how the research team hopes “to improve knowledge about concussion in New Zealand, a major medical concern in contact/collision-based sports at all ages and levels of competition.”
The outcome of the research could provide a unique perspective of the implications for the prevention and detection of concussion in rugby, according to Ian Murphy, New Zealand Rugby Medical Director. He said how “grateful he was to Otago Rugby and the team at the University of Otago for their innovative approach to this research and for working with us as we continue to learn more about concussion.”
Salmon told Critic that this is a completely new piece of technology and because of this, “we had to get permission from World Rugby before we were able to use the sensor in a game.”
Among the medical challenges facing the researchers, “the combination of sweaty rugby players and the rubbing of the ears during contact in the scrum and tackle have made for some interesting challenges. But we had some success in trialling a new method during the Otago B’s game this past Saturday and have hopefully turned a corner in being able to keep the sensors on.”