One of the world's leading head injury experts has said claims that mouthguards can reduce the risk of concussion by 20% in sport are "Not true on any level".
World Rugby is to introduce smart mouthguard technology that can send pitchside alerts if a player has experienced a high level of acceleration which could lead to an injury.
The new protocol and technology will be debuted in elite women’s competition WXV from October, and will be integrated into the Head Injury Assessment from January 2024.
World Rugby’s Executive Board approved a recommendation that players at all levels of the sport wear a mouthguard "after research in ice hockey found that as well as protecting against dental injuries, mouthguards can reduce the risk of a concussion by 20 per cent".
READ MORE: Football authorities urged to ban 'slow and steady killer' by 2030
A spokesman for World Rugby said the peer reviewed study in ice hockey was published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine and was also cited in the Concussion in Sport Amsterdam Consensus statement which was also published in the journal.
He said the measure had the potential to improve the wellbeing of thousands of Scottish rugby players.
However, Scottish neuropathologist Professor Willie Stewart, whose groundbreaking research identified a link between dementia and football, said very limited data had showed the claim "was not true on any level" and "specifically not true in the case of rugby."
He advised World Rugby to "look more closely at the evidence".
World Rugby is investing an initial €2 million to support unions, competitions and clubs to adopt the new smart mouthguard technology by Prevent Biometrics.
The smart mouthguards work in real time to send "alerts of high forces" to the independent matchday doctor.
READ MORE: Fund launched for ex-footballers who develop dementia
It says this will "for the first time, enable players who have experienced a high acceleration event, but not shown symptoms or been seen by broadcast cameras, to be taken off and assessed."
The mouthguards will be required in training as well as matches, which World Rugby say will enable coaches to better tailor drills, tackle skills, and training load for each individual player, and best support their performance and welfare.New guidelines will also extending the time players will sit out after concussions to 21 days.
READ MORE: Dementia among footballers should be classed as an industrial injury
The measures follow a meeting of World Rugby's independent Concussion Working Group this summer in Boston, USA, which heard presentations from world-leading experts including Boston University’s Professor Ann McKee and Dr Chris Nowinski, as well as Prof Grant Iverson of Harvard Medical School.
Professor Stewart's research found that former players were five times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s Disease and had a three-fold risk of dying from neurodegenerative diseases.
Further studies by his University of Glasgow team showed that risk varied by player position and career length, but not by playing era with defenders most at risk. The research examined data up until the 1990s, when lighter footballs were in use.
Prof Stewart said the evidence was clear that the standout risk factor for neurodegenerative disease in football is exposure to head injury and head impacts.
His study prompted the SFA to ban children under 12 from heading footballs but he suggested it should be removed from the game altogether.
Other research led by the neuropathologist found that former international rugby players were 15 times more likely to develop Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
He said the findings suggested there could be grounds for a review of match frequency to limit head impact.
Scottish former rugby union player Doddie Weir, who died last year and England's Rob Burrow are among the high-profile rugby players to have contracted MND, which affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord and is a severely life shortening condition.
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