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Premiership launch new technology to try to reduce undiagnosed concussion

Worcester's Tom Heathcote gets attention after sustaining a head injury during an English Premiership match between Worcester and Wasps (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Premiership Rugby has launched an initiative to reduce the number of undiagnosed concussions in the English club game by introducing a new revolutionary ‘spotter system’ run by Hawk-Eye.

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The new real-time system, which will operate in Gallagher Premiership Rugby, European home matches, in the Premiership Rugby Cup and in the Premiership Rugby 7s, once again highlights Premiership Rugby’s commitment to achieving the highest standard of player care.

Funded solely by the Premiership Rugby clubs, the new Hawk-Eye system has been developed with only one intention, to improve player welfare.

Each Premiership Rugby club will have a dedicated matchday Pitch-side Video Reviewer (PVR) whose focus will be to use the Hawk-Eye system to identify head injury events.

Hawk-Eye will enhance Premiership Rugby’s current provision by affording the PVR up to eight different camera angles.

“Alongside the RFU and RPA we have led the world in the way we manage concussion,” said Corin Palmer, Premiership Rugby’s Head of Elite Performance and Player Development. “This is the latest step to reduce the number of undiagnosed concussions, which as we’ve seen across many sports can be catastrophic.

“At Premiership Rugby we have a duty of care to our players and this is the latest investment. Our players put their bodies on the line, week in week out, and the Hawk-Eye system shows that we put our players first.”

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Hawk-Eye Innovations is at the forefront of officiating and broadcast enhancement technology. The company provides services for 25 sports, across more than 90 countries, at over 20,000 events per year.

Hawk-Eye’s Synchronised Multi-Angle Replay Technology (SMART) is making the game safer. It works by recording all broadcast angles and making the footage available immediately to medical staff, who can use it to assess head injuries in real-time.

Stephen Carter, Chief Executive Officer of Hawk-Eye Innovations, said: “We take safety in sports very seriously, especially rugby. Now medical staff can analyse match footage in real-time, and make an informed decision to bring the player off if a head injury is suspected. We’re delighted that our technology is helping Premiership Rugby to protect players.”

The introduction of the Hawk-Eye system is the latest development in the way Premiership Rugby manages concussion. Alongside the RFU and RPA we were the first country in the world to introduce mandatory concussion training for players, coaches and match officials.

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Palmer added: “The Hawk-Eye system gives every club – home and away – an eye in the stand, who will now have access to more camera angles and the opportunity to rewind the action. Should they spot something they can bookmark it in seconds and transfer it down to the pitchside medical team for them to review and take action, which could be a permanent removal or the need to carry out a Head Injury Assessment.

“We have a clear focus in the areas of concussion identification, diagnosis, management and prevention and last season we continued to support concussion research.

“The Hawk-Eye system combined with the PVR operators puts the principles of ‘recognise and remove’ into action.”

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H
Hellhound 2 hours ago
Brett Robinson looks forward to 'monumental' year in 2025

I'm not very hopeful of a better change to the sport. Putting an Aussie in charge after they failed for two decades is just disgusting. What else will be brought in to weaken the game? What new rule changes will be made? How will the game be grown?


Nothing of value in this letter. There is no definitive drive towards something better. Just more of the same as usual. The most successful WC team is getting snubbed again and again for WC's hosting rights. What will make other competitions any different?


My beloved rugby is already a global sport. Why is there no SH team chosen between the Boks, AB's, Wallabies and Fiji? Like a B&I Lions team to tour Europe and America? A team that could face not only countries but also the B&I Lions? Wouldn't that make for a great spectacle that will also bring lots of eyeballs to the sport?


Instead with an Aussie in charge, rugby will become more like rugby league. Rugby will most likely become less global if we look at what have become of rugby in Australia. He can't save rugby in Australia, how will he improve the global footprint of rugby world wide?


I hope to be proven wrong and that he will raise up the sport to new heights, but I am very much in doubt. It's like hiring a gardener to a CEO position in a global company expecting great results. It just won't happen. Call me negative or call me whatever you'd like, Robinson is the wrong man for the job.

3 Go to comments
J
JW 3 hours ago
The Fergus Burke test and rugby's free market

The question that pops into my mind with Fergus Burke, and a few other high profile players in his boots right now, and also many from the past to be fair, is can the club scene start to take over this sentimentality of test footy being the highest level? Take for a moment a current, modern day scenario of Toulouse having a hiccup and failing to make this years Top 14 Final, we could end up seeing the strongest French side in History touring New Zealand next year. Why? Because at any one time they could make up over half the French side, but although that is largely avoided, it is very likely at the national teams detriment with the understanding these players have of playing together likely being stronger than the sum of the best players throughout France selected on marginal calls.


Would the pinnacle of the game really not be reached in the very near future by playing for a team like Toulouse? Burke might have put himself in a position where holding down a starting spot for any nation, but he could be putting himself in the hotbed of a new scene. Clearly he is a player that cherishes International footy as the highest level, and is possibly underselling himself, but really he might just be underselling these other nations he thinks he could represent.

Burke’s decision to test the waters with either England or Scotland has been thrown head-first into the spotlight by the relative lack of competition for the New Zealand 10 shirt.

This is the most illogical statement I've ever read in one of your articles Nick. Burke is behind 3 All Stars of All Black rugby, it might be a indictment of New Zealand rugby but it is abosolutely apparent (he might have even said so himself) why he decided to test the waters.

He mattered because he is the kind of first five-eighth New Zealand finds it most difficult to produce from its domestic set-up: the strategic schemer, the man who sees all the angles and all the bigger potential pictures with the detail of a single play.

Was it not one of your own articles that highlighted the recent All Black nature to select a running, direct threat, first five over the last decade? There are plenty of current players of Burke's caliber and style that simply don't fit the in vogue mode of what Dan Carter was in peoples minds, the five eight that ran at the slightest hole and started out as a second five. The interesting thing I find with that statement though is that I think he is firmly keeping his options open for a return to NZ.

A Kiwi product no longer belongs to New Zealand, and that is the way it is. Great credo or greater con it may be, but the free market is here to stay.

A very shortsighted and simplistic way to end a great article. You simply aren't going to find these circumstances in the future. The migration to New Zealand ended in 1975, and as that generation phases out, so too will the majority of these ancestry ties (in a rugby context) will end. It would be more accurate to say that Fergus Burke thought of himself as the last to be able to ride this wave, so why not jump on it? It is dying, and not just in the interests or Scottish of English fans.

47 Go to comments
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