Gregor Townsend, the coach leading Scotland, has expressed worry over the efficacy of mouthguard technology following an incident where Scotland’s prop Zander Fagerson was sidelined for a head injury assessment during the initial phase of their victory over England in the Calcutta Cup match.
RUCK’s 2024 Guinness Six Nations content powered by ISUZU.
The deployment of a “smart mouthguard” triggered an alert, resulting in England gaining the upper hand in the scrum while Fagerson underwent evaluation off the field.
“I saw the tackle again – just a normal tackle. I think we have to really watch what we’re doing here. Trust in technology that’s not been proven,” said Townsend.
“What we’ve been doing over the last few years is making sure that any symptoms that are seen, a number of people can flag up whether someone goes off for an HIA.
“Zander was taken off for 10 minutes after what looked like a normal tackle but there was a spike alert from the mouthguard.
“I know in Super Rugby there were a couple of alerts and players were saying ‘there’s nothing wrong here, I’ve just made a tackle’, so we’ve got to watch that because you don’t want to be taking off our best players off the field for 10 minutes if there are no issues around concussion.
“We want to protect our players, that’s for certain, but there’s a bit more work to do before this technology is correct.”
“3/10” – 5 players who flopped in the third round of the 2024 Six Nations
We examine five players who struggled to deliver during the third round of the 2024 Guinness Six Nations, while England, Ireland, and France secured wins.
#1. Josh Adams (Wales)
Rugby Pass 3/10: “Scrambled on defence and offered a release with a big right boot. His leading role in the blitz defence meant he missed as many tackles as he made. Replaced by Mason Grady on 57 minutes.”
Rugby Dump 4/10: “Not the force he once way, Adams looks out of sorts at the moment and will be under pressure from the likes of Mason Grady who was superb when he came on.”
Planet Rugby 4/10: “Relatively quiet and spent most of the game defending but missed more tackles than he made. Would have liked to impose himself on the game more.”
Wales Online 5/10: “Didn’t get many opportunities to show his class with ball in hand but there were a few aimless kicks, and he missed a tackle on Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan in the first-half. Worked hard during the second-half but it wasn’t his day.”
Telegraph 5/10: “Tough day, copping an early blow tackling Aki before being steamrolled by Sheehan. Was later crunched too by a big Van der Flier tackle.”
Isuzu Scratch-Card Game:
If you don’t win, don’t worry – you get 2 chances to win every day! Have another attempt by simply answering a quick question following your first unsuccessful scratch.
Don’t forget to come back every day to try and win big!