Flashing LED mouthguards to be used in Women's Rugby World Cup 2025
The LED gumshields will flash red when a player experiences a head impact that passes a threshold determined by World Rugby.
'We are absolutely delighted to be introducing the LED into the mouthguard,' Dr Lindsay Starling, science and medical manager at World Rugby said.
'Previously, throughout 2024, most of the smart mouthguards you will have seen players wearing are white.
'Mouthguards players are wearing now are clear, and so on the side, you can see the LED board, the accelerometer and the gyroscope.
'When a player sustains an impact that results in an alert being triggered, not only is that alert being sent by Bluetooth to the match doctor on the side of the field, but the LED board on the side of the mouthguard flashes red.
'This will now be formally implemented as part of the HIA protocol in the Women's Rugby World Cup and at every tournament that makes use of smart mouthguards starting after the Women's Rugby World Cup.
'The reason for this is to create awareness; now everybody will be able to tell when a player has sustained a significant head impact during the match such that it has triggered an alert.'
It's already been a summer to remember...
England, are you ready for what comes next? 🏉#RWC2025 pic.twitter.com/6U8u4ur4b3 — Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) July 28, 2025
A head impact that results in 65Gs for women and 75Gs for men, which relates to the linear movement of the head, and 4500 radians per second for both men and women, which is the speed of rotation, triggers an alert.
World Rugby are keen to stress the mouthguards do not detect concussion, with some knocks below the threshold for an alert leading to concussion, while some players who experience an impact that triggers an alert will pass a Head Injury Assessment.
The women's game has led the way in terms of implementation around smart mouthguards and concussion protocols.
The instrumented gumshields were first formally used at the 2022 World Cup, while WXV was the first tournament to implement new HIA protocols.
With disparity between the professionalism of various unions' set-ups in the women's game, World Rugby's chief medical officer Professor Éanna Falvey hopes the new protocols can have a trickle-down effect.
He said: 'Since I have been in this role, we have moved that everything we invest in the men's game, we invest in the women's game in the same way.
'That is not always particularly easy because for some of the work we do, we need competitions to have the HIA process in place, so something like the World Cup for us is a real banner event where we have a high level of teams.
'We have not just the best teams in the world, but we have teams from developing countries in the sport. This is great exposure where we hope that having played at level, that can trickle back into their own country and their union can work hard to get the HIA process in place for them.'
With more than 330,000 tickets already sold, and prices starting at just £5 for children and £10 for adults, fans are encouraged to secure their tickets now via tickets.rugbyworldcup.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ITV News
37 minutes ago
- ITV News
Women's Rugby World Cup 2025: Who has qualified and where can you watch?
All four home nations are preparing for the largest Women's Rugby World Cup ever staged, which will be held in England. All eyes will be on England's Red Roses. The world number ones have the added pressure of vying for the trophy on home soil. Here is everything you need to know about the Rugby World Cup 2025. When does the World Cup start? The tournament kicks off on August 22 at Sunderland's Stadium of Light, and continues over five weeks, coming to a head on September 27 at Allianz Stadium Twickenham, the official home of England Rugby. England take on the USA in the opening match, and games will continue on each weekend, with the occasional Friday night fixture. Who has qualified for the competition? The Women's World Cup has been expanded to 16 teams for the first time. There were only 12 teams in all previous editions since the tournament's inception in 1991. Group A: England, Australia, USA, Samoa Group B: Canada, Scotland, Wales, Fiji Group C: New Zealand, Ireland, Japan, Spain Group D: France, Italy, South Africa, Brazil Where are the matches being held? Games will take place across the country at eight locations: Sunderland, York, Brighton & Hove, Northampton, Bristol, Exeter, Salford and London. Tickets start at £10 for adults and £5 for children, and can be purchased on the official Rugby World Cup website. Tickets are still up for grabs for some matches, but availability for England's pool matches against Samoa and Australia, as well as the final match, are limited. Rugby World Cup says that 95% of England's population is within two hours of a venue, but if you aren't able to make one, games will also be shown on the BBC. How does it work? The World Cup is made up of 16 teams split into four pools. In a pool, each team will play one another once before the top two qualify for the quarter-finals. During the pool stage, teams will be awarded four points for a win, two points for a draw and zero points if they lose. There are bonus points if a team scores four tries or more, or loses by seven points or fewer. The point system is thrown out for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final match. These are straight knock-out matches, meaning the winner moves on, or if it's the final, lifts the trophy. Which team are the front-runners? The Red Roses are walking into the competition as the favourites. They are undefeated in the last 27 matches, their most recent defeat being the final in the last World Cup instalment against New Zealand. The Red Roses are rugby's top-ranked team, and have won the Guinness Women's Six Nations 15 times since 2002. Their World Cup record is also impressive - they've lifted the cup twice, in 2014 and 1994. All other instalments bar one, the Red Roses were runners-up. It was who England came second to that is crucial. New Zealand have won every single cup since 1998, apart from 2014 when England snatched it away from them. The Black Ferns are ranked third in the world currently, and England has defeated them in three games since then. Red Rose and world player of the year Ellie Kildunne said the team's defeat in the 2022 World Cup final reignited their focus. "We've learnt so much from that tournament and built so much in our culture that we're in a completely different space. "It's something that you can rewrite and that's something that we're very much focused on. "It's not a revenge story, we're just rewriting." She also spoke of the Lionesses' Euros success and the focus they've put on women's football. "I'm inspired by the Lionesses and what they've done for women's football and I hope for nothing less (for women's rugby) than what they've been able to achieve so far." Where do Wales, Scotland and Ireland stand? Wales' first match will be against Six Nations rivals Scotland on August 23 in Salford. After that, they'll take on group favourites Canada, who sit second in the world rankings. The furthest Wales have come in the tournament is fourth place in 2022, but Alex Callender said the team is "raring to go". "We're all really excited to step out and showcase all the hard work that we've put in over the last couple of months, and hopefully we can put in a performance and the result will follow." They'll have to bring their all to turn the tide. Scotland defeated Wales in their last two Six Nations matches, although the team is four places lower in the world rankings, standing in eighth place. Scotland have reached the quarter-finals three times, in 1994, 1998 and 2002. Their more recent tournaments have been less successful. They were knocked out during the pool stages in 2002, and didn't qualify in 2017 or 2014. This year it will be all to play for - Scotland's second match is against Fiji, and third against Canada. Ireland will face Japan in Northampton for their first match of the tournament. After failing to qualify for the last World Cup, the team say they are bringing their A-game. Ireland failed to qualify for the last World Cup, staged in 2022 in New Zealand. Co-captain McMahon said: "Missing out on the last World Cup lit a fire in all of us. "Getting Ireland back on the world stage means absolutely everything, it's something we have dreamed of and fought for ever since. We're ready, and we are going to give it everything for our country."
Scottish Sun
5 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
‘Shutting them up' – Darts star blasts social media ‘haters' after losing to Luke Littler in New Zealand Masters final
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) MIKE DE DECKER blasted social media 'haters' during the New Zealand Masters. The World No.19 reached the final of the Australian Darts Masters last week before losing out to Luke Littler in Auckland. 2 Mike De Decker has endured a difficult few months Credit: Getty 2 De Decker congratulates Luke Littler after their Australian Darts Masters clash Credit: Shutterstock Editorial De Decker's place at the World Series events had come under scrutiny following a challenging few months on the oche since his World Grand Prix triumph. The Belgian thrower admitted the online abuse from trolls can be harsh on everyone in the sport but he isn't letting it derail his focus. He said: 'When I reached the final in Australia and I lost to Luke (Littler) I opened up social media and I didn't see one bad comment. 'I was thinking 'where are all the haters now?' 'Everyone is slagging you off when you have a bad performance and forgetting what you've done before. 'It's not only with me but it is with everyone. They have been slagging off Luke Humphries as well. 'Look at what he's done the last two years. 'So, it was a big confidence boost to reach the finals and shutting them up to be honest.' BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK The 29-year-old was dumped out at the first hurdle in the World Cup and exited the Matchplay in round two which led to a bombardment of 'cruel' messages from online trolls. He added: 'Social media is a hard world to live in. 'After the World Cup as well when me and Dimitri (Van den Bergh) lost in the group stages, social media was a really tough place to be on. 'It's how you cope with it, but some reactions and messages are just too cruel to be left out.'
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
Caribbean looks to revive passion and pride for cricket – and for the region
When they toured overseas in the 1970s, West Indies cricketers were sometimes subjected to barrages of racist abuse. But back home in the Caribbean, the men were heroes, with families huddled around radios and televisions whenever they played and shouts of jubilation erupting across entire communities whenever they won. Today, the generation of players who won two World Cups, in 1975 and 1979, are acclaimed as living legends for stepping up to the crease regardless of the challenges – and triumphing over teams from larger, more developed nations. And as the region celebrates Emancipation Month to commemorate the end of slavery, they have been hailed as figures of regional pride whose mastery of a game imported by the British became a powerful symbol of political and cultural resistance. Earlier this month, St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) hosted the first-ever Emancipation Cricket Festival, which the culture and tourism minister, Carlos James, described as a reminder of the powerful link 'between our emancipation, resistance, our Caribbean culture and the birth of Caribbean cricket'. 'Some folks ask, why are you linking cricket – which is a game of the English – to emancipation. How does it correlate? Well, it was a period where every Caribbean national was glued to their radios … their television sets, to follow these men who went out in the middle of the cricket pitch,' James said. By touring – and winning – that generation of sportsmen sent a powerful message, he said: 'They were making a political statement that we are young Black men from small Caribbean islands – and we can dominate the world.' James said that understanding the link between sport and politics – and reviving the collective passion for the game – could help turn the tide for today's West Indies team, which has performed poorly in recent games. St Vincent and the Grenadines' prime minister, Ralph Gonsalves, one of the region's strongest voices for reparations from Europe for the genocide of Native peoples and the enslavement of African people, said the aim of the emancipation festival was to bring awareness to the region's period of struggle and resistance. 'Cricket, a game brought to us … by the British colonists, became our own existential instrument to aid our quest for national liberation, liberty, equality, fairness and justice,' he said. 'We absorbed this English sport, mastered it, transcended its limits, made it our own, redefined it - and took it beyond the boundaries.' He added that today, 'cricketing culture' remained vital to the region. But such is the state of Caribbean cricket that Caricom, the 15-country regional bloc, recently said that it was 'deeply concerned … about all aspects of the current state of the game in the region'. In a statement, Caricom said: 'Cricket has, for decades, been a platform through which our small nations have collectively stood tall on the world stage. West Indies Cricket is very much a 'public good'.' It added that 'the [West Indies] team's recent performance is a moment of reckoning for this cherished Caribbean institution'. Describing cricket as a 'glue that has kept us together', Sir Clive Lloyd, who twice led the West Indies to world cup victory, welcomed the intervention by Caricom, saying: 'We are not a very rich area and [it will be good] if they can inject cash and whatever it is that is needed.' Kesrick Williams, 35, a former cricketer from St Vincent, said some of today's players were becoming disillusioned and needed more support. He called for a change in the general culture of West Indies cricket to revive passion for the sport among children and young people. 'I can't tell when last I saw cricket being played in the road and the traffic had to stop. We have to build back that cricket culture and that firm love for the game,' he said. 'Growing up, what would put a smile on my dad's face was watching cricket. As a youngster when I saw that … I fell in love with cricket.' James said Caricom was hoping to include the cricket heroes of the 70s – who were recently the subject of a set of a commemorative stamps in SVG – in discussions about the game: 'Most of the legends are still around. And if we can take an ounce of passion that they have, and we move that from their generation to the next generation of Caribbean cricketers, it will make a whole heap of difference.'
