Always a Wasp

From today's Times

A mouthguard that could help to solve rugby’s concussion headache
owen slot, chief rugby correspondent


I don’t want to sound like a sucker for these things, but pretty much anything that can make the game safer is worth the closest of inspections. The “Judgement Day” game between Ospreys and Blues in Cardiff on Saturday is therefore fascinating, way beyond who wins and who loses and who scores the tries.

Both teams will be trialling a new mouthguard, pioneered by OPRO, the company known to many as one of the leaders in this industry. The cool part of these new mouthguards, though, is they will have a microchip embedded within them which has been designed to measure force of impact.

The chips in the mouthguard will send a signal that will be picked up on the laptops of the teams’ medical staff on the touchline. The theory is that when they can see that one head has had enough impact, then they will be able to make a decision to withdraw the player.

The concussion problem in rugby has been well enough established. What has not, though, has been a solution. Cardiff on Saturday might be it.

I spoke to Justin Tipuric and he could hardly have summed it up better. “Everyone wears a GPS monitor in the back of their jerseys to see how much work they are doing,” he said. “This is kind of the same, it will show exactly the number of bumps to the head you are getting.”


At Ospreys, they have been trialling it in training for a few months. They believe it is time, now, to take it forward.

This might feel like a “Hallelujah” moment but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The microchip might be able to measure head knocks; it cannot prevent them. At the very least, if it works, it will help professional teams better manage their players.

However, this is day one. It hasn’t been approved. It hasn’t been peer-reviewed by a large number of players, it hasn’t been officially endorsed from a wider player welfare perspective by World Rugby.

At the moment, it is a clever invention with its manufacturers, OPRO, getting some decent publicity in The Times. So, too, should Sports and Wellbeing Analytics, who helped to pioneer the technology. I hope the PR gets a gold star.

However, it is highly likely that technology can help rugby. Whether it is this technology or not, I don’t know. It is also clear that there is a decent business to be made from whatever it is that does make the breakthrough and so, unsurprisingly, there are a number of sports manufacturers keenly trying to occupy this space.

In The Times, in November, we reported on research published in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) that showed that a number of scrum caps could reduce the risk of concussion. This research was not commercially funded. As we reported, the research showed that the Canterbury Ventilator scrum cap could decrease the force of an impact by 47 per cent.

Yes, great publicity for Canterbury.

This may have been another breakthrough. The accepted wisdom on scrum caps has long been that they do not protect the head from concussions. They give a protection from cuts and bruises and cauliflower ears, but not concussion. Suddenly the BMJ was saying otherwise. Look at headguard marketing and many of them will also persuade you how great they are at protecting you.

However, research in a science laboratory and a company’s marketing department is a long way from having a product tested in the field of play.

Sometimes World Rugby can be accused of moving slowly, however, it is right to be extremely cautious before it gives an endorsement to any such product — not because someone will be making money out of the game, but because it would be an abrogation of duty to leave anyone under the impression that they are suddenly safer if, actually, they are not.

So on we go. Into trial processes. Unions are now able to apply for dispensation to undertake formal scientific studies.

I find this both curious and exciting. Yes, there may be a big windfall for any manufacturer who does come up with the technology that makes the game safer. And if they do, they will certainly have earned it.

Olympic bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton is now working with Wasps


 Alex Bywater

Kelly Sotherton is clearly a restless sporting soul. As a three-time Olympic bronze medallist, with a glittering career in heptathlon and 4x400m relay, she had no need of further garnishing her CV, but rather than stand still, she decided to plunge into a whole new world: rugby union.

The 42-year-old is using her expertise to guide Wasps’ stars on their running technique and athletic performance as a vital member of Dai Young’s backroom team. Her decision to join the Gallagher Premiership outfit at the start of this season following a recommendation to director of rugby Young from former UK Athletics chief executive David Moorcroft was certainly a step into the unknown, but Sotherton’s impact has been huge.

Wasps’ players have certainly benefitted from her work and she believes the role of a specific running or speed coach should be commonplace at all top teams.

“I’d been around rugby in the past, but never properly invested in it,” Sotherton told Telegraph Sport from Wasps’ Broadstreet base. “I was dropped in at the deep end with Wasps where I had to fully understand the game and learn quickly how my training could help the players.

“It’s been a baptism of fire, but I definitely know a lot more than I did a year ago! I did Question of Sport in December and the first face on the picture board was Christian Wade. I said his name straight away! I was on with Neil Back that day so it was even better I got it before him.

“What I do now is totally different to track and field as it’s a team environment, but I absolutely love the experience of it.”

So, what is it exactly Sotherton does at Wasps? “I look at the players’ running mechanics to try and make them more efficient. I apply the same logic to every player whether they are a back or a forward,” she explained.

“They can then apply that to what they do in their specific position and it means they are more efficient, less prone to injury, and are faster and fitter for longer.

“I think rugby can do a lot more of this. Athletics is the base which underpins most sports, so why would you not look at others to enhance your own? I think there should be a good athletics coach at every club and not just in rugby, but football too.

“It can give coaches and conditioners different ideas. Wasps have taken the plunge on me and I’ve seen a big improvement. Marcus Watson is someone who has been injured, but he’s back playing regularly now.

“We know he’s quick from England Sevens, but he’s getting faster and faster. He’s scoring more tries and that’s really good for me to see.

“Our lock Will Rowlands scored a try at Bristol this season when he ran in from 40 metres. That sort of try comes once a season for a second row and it was a match-winning try for us. That was a massive tick box for me.”

In 2019, elite rugby is a game of fine margins, but specific running coaches remain the exception not the norm. The well-renowned Dr Margot Wells has worked with the likes of Mike Brown and Danny Cipriani, but both those players have sought out her services outside their club environments.

“Kelly has had a big impact with us,” said Wasps winger Watson, who starts against Exeter at Sandy Park this afternoon. “At the start of the season I was running with my foot stride a little bit behind my body. That was a little thing Kelly noticed and helped to change straight away.

“It was advice like that which helped me get back into the swing of things after injury. I definitely feel I’ve got much faster and my acceleration is something she’s definitely helped with. That is one of the most important aspects of my game and where I place a great deal of focus.

“Running coaches have been around for a little while – maybe more so for me when I was with England Sevens. My brother Anthony does quite a lot of speed work outside of rugby with a guy called Jonas Dodoo. He also goes in to work with England, but it is still a bit of an untapped market in rugby. Maybe it could be exploited more and with Kelly helping us, other teams might follow suit.”


Since the dawn of professionalism, rugby’s players have got bigger, faster and stronger with no sign of change. Pace, Sotherton argues, is now more important in the game than ever before.

“Unless one team makes a mistake, you don’t see players in a lot of space in rugby anymore. That’s why pace is even more important now,” she added. 

“The acceleration over the first five or six metres is vital and that’s what I work on with the players over and over again in training.

“Even if athletes are big, you can still teach them to run. Usain Bolt was six foot four. You have to deal with a player’s genetics and apply that to make their running style efficient and technically good.”

Wasps might not have had the best of seasons on the field, but they have seen Sotherton reward the gamble they took on her. The benefits may prove invaluable in the long term.

“On the very first day I walked into Wasps I was very nervous,” Sotherton added. “It was so daunting, but being a sportswoman in track and field where there are men and women means I can dish it out too!

“The players know nothing embarrasses me. I can see from being here why it’s harder for women to break through into elite sports environments, but women are needed to even the balance out.

“Working with Wasps has transformed my life. I don’t see myself as a woman, I just see myself as part of the team. I get more respect here than I did in track and field and I give the same respect back.”

From today’s Telegraph

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/saracens-write-off-over-45m-of-debt

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/watch-wade-does-speed-test-in-front-of-nfl-scouts

Bottoms Up explained: how beer is poured in Tottenham’s new stadium
Nicholas Godden
March 25 2019, 12:00pm, The Times
Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium, which opened its doors to supporters for the first time yesterday, includes plenty of impressive features: the golden cockerel sitting proudly atop the South Stand; the 17,500-capacity single tier; the 65-metre long goalline bar; the ground’s own microbrewery. But one of the biggest talking points among fans in the build-up to the (delayed) opening has been the novel way that beer will be dispensed.
The stadium bars will be fitted with the Bottoms Up beer system, which fills the glass, or plastic cup, from the bottom via a hole in the cup. It is a system that is common in the United States but is lesser spotted in the UK, although is being used in a number of stadiums including Anfield and Stamford Bridge and has been in use in the UK since 2014.
 
So how does it work? The Bottoms Up cup has a hole in the bottom with a metal ring around the hole on the inside of the cup. The hole is sealed with a magnet. The cup is placed on a Bottoms Up dispenser, which is connected to a standard keg of beer or cider. The dispenser’s nozzle securely lifts the magnet and creates a gap for the beer to automatically fill the cup. The dispenser can be programmed to fill cups or pitchers of different quantities.
What are the benefits? For a start it takes about six seconds to pour a pint, compared with 16 seconds for a traditional tap and because a single dispenser can have up to six separate nozzles, several pints can be poured in a matter of seconds. Tottenham claim that the stadium has the capacity to pour 10,000 pints per minute. Because the sytem fills the cup automatically, it leaves the bartender free to complete transactions or take other orders, further speeding up the process — perfect for high-volume events.
How much does the equipment cost? Dispensers range from £1,500 to about £4,500 depending on the number of nozzles and the volume purchased. From the 2019-20 season, Bottoms Up is introducing a new multi-use cup that will be collected washed and returned at the cost of 15p per cup.
Bottoms Up claims to reduce wastage from 30 per cent per keg to just 2 per cent and increase revenue by 30 per cent. One of the selling points is that the magnet can be customised to display adverts or promotions.
Even once the novelty of watching a beer fill from the bottom has worn off, it should make the rigmarole of buying a half-time beer a bit quicker. But a word of warning: don’t mess about with the magnet.

How Andrew Forrest, a billionaire from Perth, made rugby’s Twenty20
owen slot, chief rugby correspondent

No one got nine points for a try last week but, for the first time, the full nine-pointer was available. For the first time, also, a professional game was 70 minutes long. For the first time too, a red card was a 20-minute penalty, not the whole game.
The game in question was in Perth last Friday night, when Western Force beat a World XV 26-16. More interesting than beating a World XV, though, was whether this may, in any way, change the world game
Rugby union stands at a critical point in its history. Last week, in Paris, leaders of the world game gathered to discuss how it may change to become safer, to protect players, to reduce injuries, particularly concussions. You may have read about it; my colleague, Alex Lowe, was in Paris reporting on it.
You may say that such a summit was overdue and you would be right. The point, though, is that the leaders are embracing the phenomenal responsibility that happens to have landed on their shoulders at this time when the game’s very future is threatened.
History will be the judge of how successful they were. It may also record the events that took place 9,000 miles away, two days after the Paris symposium had come to an end.
It was with that Western Force game in Perth that Global Rapid Rugby was launched by Andrew Forrest, the local iron ore billionaire. Forrest describes his creation as a “petri dish” for the game in which experiments with rule changes can be conducted. He wants to see if he can get Rapid Rugby to grow. Having an Aussie’s can-do positivity and a wealth that has had him ranked for a decade among Australia’s top ten richest people, he most definitely believes he can. When I spoke to him last week, he was pretty persuasive too.
There is some backstory to all this. Two years ago, Western Force were one of the five Super Rugby franchises in Australia where, collectively, an unsustainable balance sheet and an even worse results sheet meant that something had to change. The decision taken by Rugby Australia was to euthanise one of the five franchises. When it decided that Western Force would be the one to go, it hadn’t accounted for Forrest.
Forrest — known as “Twiggy” — led a sustained rearguard action. He underwrote Force’s legal challenge. When that eventually failed, he stuck two fingers up to the establishment and said: “Well you still can’t kill us off, Western Force might not be welcome in Super Rugby but they can play in my own international rugby competition instead.”
Thus, last year, he launched World Series Rugby, a sequence of exhibition matches against teams from Hong Kong, Samoa and Tonga as well as some Super Rugby teams. He pledged, at the time, to have a proper league up and running for 2019, with teams from the likes of Malaysia and Sri Lanka. He hasn’t completely managed that; his 2019 edition is instead a 14-match “showcase series” from six venues including Hong Kong and Singapore.
His masterplan may take some time — and I need some persuading that it will work. What is fascinating is what is in his petri dish.
Last year, he trialled the “power try”, which earned a team seven points if they scored from an attack that started in their own 22. This year, that has been upgraded to a nine-pointer (though with no conversion).
His thesis is that rugby has to adapt to survive. He wants to return rugby to a game that caters for all shapes and sizes. He wants family audiences rather than a beer-and-boys brigade. And he wants entertainment.
“What the audience doesn’t like is the ball continuously being kicked out deliberately,” he said. “Running the ball is what people love to see. When the ball is moving, that is action, that is gold, that is what rugby can deliver. When you kick it out or slow it down deliberately, that is what turns audiences off.”
How can rugby ensure a healthy future? It needs to be entertaining and it needs to be safe. From our conversation, Forrest sounded inspired marginally more by the former. He wants less stop-start and a 15 per cent increase of ball-in-play time. For instance, those teams in Global Rapid Rugby gain nothing from kicking the ball out on the full from within their 22; instead they concede a lineout from where it is kicked. This should bring longer periods of play and more pressure on the defending team to run from deep.

Now it gets interesting. More ball-in-play time equals a more aerobically challenging game, which requires athletes who are conditioned differently, with less power and more speed and endurance. Partly with that in mind, Forrest has reduced the game to 35 minutes each way. This has had it dismissed as rugby’s version of Twenty20 cricket. Whatever. More interesting, though, is what it can do for the game outside Forrest’s own private domain.
At the Paris symposium, World Rugby discussed reducing the numbers of substitutes. Fewer substitutes would oblige more players to be conditioned differently — just like Forrest’s Rapid Rugby players. However, every change that World Rugby wishes to test needs to be trialled. Think about that: you want a whole league of players to recondition, just for a trial? That is a big ask. World Rugby is fortunate that Forrest is indirectly trialling this for them.
It may not be such a surprise, then, that World Rugby gave Rapid Rugby the endorsement it required.
As Lowe reported from Paris, World Rugby wishes to trial a new “50-22” law, whereby the attacking team would be rewarded with the lineout throw if the ball was kicked from within their own half and bounced into touch inside their opponent’s 22-metre line. The intention would be to persuade opposition wings to hang back to defend the kick — and this, in turn, would create space for an attack. It just so happens that Rapid Rugby is playing a version of this law change too.
Often the player-welfare debate turns to the use of red cards. As we know, one way to change players’ behaviour — at the tackle, for instance — is to show more red cards. The objection here is that red cards can cast too great an influence over the outcome of a game. How helpful, then, that Rapid Rugby is making a red card merely a 20-minute penalty (and the carded player cannot come back on, with a team-mate sent on his place).
Forrest says that “it took guts for World Rugby to endorse” his competition. I am not sure how brave World Rugby was being, given that Agustín Pichot, its vice-chairman, is on the Rapid Rugby board.
Nevertheless, Forrest has a point here: “This is an opportunity which World Rugby are taking: ‘Hey, we really want to see all these innovations work. Let’s trial them at international competition. That is a massive strategic exercise. Who can do that? Global Rapid Rugby. Thankyou.’ We will swim against the tide of tradition and endorse a new competition.”
This Friday, the new competition sees Western Force play the South China Tigers, the Hong Kong franchise which happens to star Tom Varndell, the all-time top try-scorer in the English Premiership. Two weeks later, they play the Asia Pacific Dragons, the new Singapore franchise. In May, teams from Fiji and Samoa join the fray.
Next year, Forrest wants to expand further. I don’t know about that. I do know, though, that his competition has been unfairly dismissed by some as a wealthy man’s gimmick.
Rugby needs to embrace change. It is, at last, slowly and tentatively doing so. In western Australia, meanwhile, change sweeps through the game like a whirlwind. And it may be showing the rest of us the way ahead.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/agents-poll-the-best-and-worst-destination

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George and Farrell much too quick to get into conflict.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/you-see-any-white-shirt-being-messed-around-with-and-youll-often-see-15-white-shirts-there-pretty-quickly