RL's TaCKLE Project shapes concussion and welfare changes

As contact sports come to terms with the growing evidence around the long-term effects of repeated concussions suffered by participants, rugby league is taking steps to further understand more about those head impacts.

Led by Professor Ben Jones and his team, the TaCKLE Project - TaCKLE standing for tackle and contact kinematics, load and exposure - is being jointly undertaken by the Betfred Super League and the RFL, and uses instrumented mouthguards to assess what happens to players.

Mouthguards that contain accelerometers and gyroscopes have previously been used by the likes of Leeds Rhinos and Salford Red Devils, but have now been deployed across all 12 Super League clubs and other areas of the sport to inform how to mitigate and treat head injuries.

"We're aware of the seriousness of concussion and at the start of the 2020 season, Leeds Rhinos started using instrumented mouthguards and they replaced traditional gumshields," said Jones, who works closely with the national team set-up as the head of performance for the England Performance Unit.

"The reason we say 'head accelerations' and not 'head impacts' is that would capture the whiplash, which isn't a type of head impact injury but requires the head to move quickly.

"What we did as a sport was come together to say: 'let's work together', identify who we think is the best mouthguard provider for rugby league, deploy these across the men's Super League, academy, Women's Super League and a number of community teams.

"So, ultimately we get a really good picture of the load and exposure rugby league players are exposed to."

The RFL has already taken steps to strengthen its disciplinary procedures in an effect to reduce contact with the head ahead of the 2022 season,