. 2025 May 7.

doi: 10.1007/s40279-025-02241-2. Online ahead of print.

Evaluating the Probability of Head Acceleration Events in Elite Men's and Women's Rugby Union Match-Play: The Impact of Tackle Height and Body Position

Cameron Owen^{1

2}, Greg Roe³, James Tooby³, Thomas Sawczuk^{3

4}, James Brown^{3

5

6}, Matt Cross^{3

7}, Éanna Falvey^{8

9}, Sharief Hendricks^{3

5}, Simon Kemp^{10

11}, Lindsay Starling^{8

12

13}, Keith Stokes^{10

12

13}, Ross Tucker^{6

8}, Ben Jones^{3

14

5

7

15}

Affiliations

¹ Carnegie Applied Rugby Research (CARR) Centre, Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK. Cameron.owen@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.
² England Performance Unit, Rugby Football League, Manchester, UK. Cameron.owen@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.
³ Carnegie Applied Rugby Research (CARR) Centre, Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK.
⁴ Obesity Institute, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK.
⁵ Division of Physiological Sciences, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁶ The Division of Sport and Exercise Medicine (DiSEM), Department of Exercise, Sport and Lifestyle Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
⁷ Premiership Rugby, London, UK.
⁸ World Rugby, Dublin, Ireland.
⁹ School of Medicine and Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
¹⁰ Rugby Football Union, Twickenham, UK.
¹¹ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
¹² Centre for Health and Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
¹³ UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS), University of Bath, Bath, UK.
¹⁴ England Performance Unit, Rugby Football League, Manchester, UK.
¹⁵ Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

PMID: 40335879
DOI: 10.1007/s40279-025-02241-2

Evaluating the Probability of Head Acceleration Events in Elite Men's and Women's Rugby Union Match-Play: The Impact of Tackle Height and Body Position

Cameron Owen et al. Sports Med. 2025.

. 2025 May 7.

doi: 10.1007/s40279-025-02241-2. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Carnegie Applied Rugby Research (CARR) Centre, Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK. Cameron.owen@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.
² England Performance Unit, Rugby Football League, Manchester, UK. Cameron.owen@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.
³ Carnegie Applied Rugby Research (CARR) Centre, Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK.
⁴ Obesity Institute, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK.
⁵ Division of Physiological Sciences, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁶ The Division of Sport and Exercise Medicine (DiSEM), Department of Exercise, Sport and Lifestyle Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
⁷ Premiership Rugby, London, UK.
⁸ World Rugby, Dublin, Ireland.
⁹ School of Medicine and Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
¹⁰ Rugby Football Union, Twickenham, UK.
¹¹ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
¹² Centre for Health and Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
¹³ UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS), University of Bath, Bath, UK.
¹⁴ England Performance Unit, Rugby Football League, Manchester, UK.
¹⁵ Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

PMID: 40335879
DOI: 10.1007/s40279-025-02241-2

Abstract

Background: Head acceleration events (HAEs) are an increasing concern in collision sports owing to potential negative health outcomes.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to describe the probabilities of HAEs in tackles of differing heights and body positions in elite men's and women's rugby union.

Methods: Instrumented mouthguards (iMGs) were worn in men's (n = 24 teams, 508 players, 782 observations) and women's (n = 26 teams, 350 players, 1080 observations) rugby union matches. Tackle height (i.e. point of contact on ball-carrier) and body positions of tacklers and ball-carriers were labelled for all tackles in which a player wore an iMG. HAEs from the initial impact were identified. Mean player, tackler and ball-carrier exceedance probabilities for various peak linear and angular acceleration thresholds were estimated from ordinal mixed-effects models.

Results: Contact with ball-carriers' head/neck resulted in the highest mean HAE probabilities for both sexes. The probability of an HAE to the ball-carrier decreased as tackle height lowered. The highest probability for the tackler was initial contact to the ball-carriers upper leg. Body position influenced the probability of HAEs, with falling/diving ball-carriers resulting in higher mean probabilities. When a player, regardless of role, was bent-at-waist, elevated HAE probabilities were observed in men's competitions. Women's data demonstrated similar probabilities of an HAE for all body positions.

Conclusions: Initial contact to the ball-carrier's head/neck had the highest chance of an HAE, whilst role-specific differences are apparent for different tackle heights and body positions. Future player-welfare strategies targeting contact events should therefore consider HAE mechanisms along with current literature.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Funding: World Rugby funded this research project. Conflict of interest: C.O. is partly funded by the Rugby Football League and has received funding from Prevent Biometrics and World Rugby. T.S. is partly funded by Premiership Rugby and World Rugby. G.R. role is partly funded by World Rugby and Premiership Rugby. J.T. is partly funded by the Rugby Football League, Premiership Rugby and World Rugby. B.J. is employed by Premiership Rugby and Rugby Football League as a consultant and has received research funding from Prevent Biometrics and World Rugby. M.C. is employed by Premiership Rugby. L.S. and É.F. are employed by World Rugby. S.H. is funded by the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby. K.S. and S.K. are employed by the Rugby Football Union. J.B. is part funded by World Rugby. R.T. is employed by World Rugby as a consultant. Ethics approval: This project was approved by the Leeds Beckett University Ethics Committee (ref. no.: 108638). This study was performed in accordance with the standards of ethics outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent to participate: All participants provided written consent. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Availability of data and material: All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. Anonymised data are available upon reasonable request. Code availability: Code for analyses will be available upon reasonable request. Author contributions: C.O., J.T., T.S., G.R. and B.J. conceptualised the research project and study design. C.O. and T.S. conducted formal statistical analysis and presentation of results. All authors critically reviewed and edited the manuscript prior to submission.

Cited by

Decoding the Tackle: Using a Machine Learning Approach to Understand Direct Head Contact Events in Elite Women's Rugby.
Dane K, Rushe E, Connors W, West SW, Hendricks S, Laurent T, Simms C, Wilson F, Ventresque A. Dane K, et al. Eur J Sport Sci. 2025 Aug;25(8):e70018. doi: 10.1002/ejsc.70018. Eur J Sport Sci. 2025. PMID: 40754709 Free PMC article.

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Evaluating the Probability of Head Acceleration Events in Elite Men's and Women's Rugby Union Match-Play: The Impact of Tackle Height and Body Position

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Evaluating the Probability of Head Acceleration Events in Elite Men's and Women's Rugby Union Match-Play: The Impact of Tackle Height and Body Position

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Conflict of interest statement

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