N-Pro Headguard banned

[Paule23]

Scottish Rugby, amongst others (there are academic research papers that support this). You've presumably not had the "if in doubt, sit them out" session at your society meeting yet!

Definitely had if in doubt......not sure what relevance that is to scrum caps.

Could you direct me to the literature which supports scrum caps reducing risk of concussion?

 

[Paule23]

FFS!!! (not aimed at Paule23!)

Phew....

 

[Pinky]

Definitely had if in doubt......not sure what relevance that is to scrum caps.

Could you direct me to the literature which supports scrum caps reducing risk of concussion?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19127196 as an example. There was also a 2014 article in the Telegraph.

 

[Paule23]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19127196 as an example. There was also a 2014 article in the Telegraph.

That study says "Padded headgear does not reduce the rate of head injury or concussion." Which supports what I was saying. Have I misinterpreted, I thought you were suggesting there are scientific studies which show headgear reducing concussion.

 

[Camquin]

In order to do anything useful it would need to compress over enough time to reduce the acceleration.
A bit like a crumple zone in a car.
An in designing a crumple zone taking material out can improve performance.

Oddly head gear that is WR compliant is not physically compliant enough to have sufficient effect.
Which would suggest a thicker but softer, technically more compliant, headgear might be effective.
Perhaps like the new paper bike helmet.
The question is how large and soft would it have to be to have any real effect.

 

[Paule23]

In order to do anything useful it would need to compress over enough time to reduce the acceleration.
A bit like a crumple zone in a car.
An in designing a crumple zone taking material out can improve performance.

Oddly head gear that is WR compliant is not physically compliant enough to have sufficient effect.
Which would suggest a thicker but softer, technically more compliant, headgear might be effective.
Perhaps like the new paper bike helmet.
The question is how large and soft would it have to be to have any real effect.

Too large and too soft to be practical in rugby, and after a single blow it would need replacing.

You only need to look at the number of concussions in American Football, with full helmets, to know headgear is not an effective way to minimise the risk of concussion. I think we need to stamp hard on any myths amongst players, officials, parents etc that scrum caps can protect against concussion, and then focus on coaching and enforcement of dangerous tackle laws rather than pinning hopes on protective equipment.