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Head Acceleration Event Exposure during Pre-Season Training in Elite Men's Rugby Union.

Samuel Hudson1,2, Gregory Roe3, Matt Cross3,4

  • 1Centre for Health and Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport, University of Bath, Bath, UK. sjh241@bath.ac.uk.

Sports Medicine - Open
|July 15, 2026
PubMed
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Head acceleration events (HAEs) in elite men's rugby union pre-season training are low, similar to in-season training. Forwards experience higher HAE incidence than backs, particularly later in pre-season.

Area of Science:

  • Sports Medicine
  • Biomechanics
  • Rugby Union Performance Analysis

Background:

  • Head acceleration events (HAEs) in elite men's rugby union are well-documented during matches and in-season training.
  • Pre-season training HAEs have not been previously investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To describe the incidence and magnitude of HAEs during elite men's pre-season rugby union training.
  • To compare HAE incidence between playing positions (forwards and backs) and across different phases of pre-season training.

Main Methods:

  • Instrumented mouthguards (iMGs) collected data from 53 players across 44 training sessions in three English PREM Rugby clubs.
  • HAE incidence was calculated per player minute and analyzed using a negative binomial generalized linear mixed model.
  • Data was segmented by playing position and by three-week phases (early, middle, late) of the pre-season period.
Keywords:
Head acceleration eventInstrumented mouthguardPre-seasonRugby unionTraining

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Main Results:

  • The mean incidence of HAEs (≥5 g and ≥0.4 krad/s²) was 0.08/min, equating to 5.09 HAEs per player-training-session.
  • Forwards showed a higher incidence (0.10/min) than backs (0.05/min), with a significant incidence rate ratio (IRR) of 1.84.
  • HAE incidence increased significantly across pre-season phases for forwards, with the final phase showing the highest rates (0.13/min).

Conclusions:

  • Pre-season training exhibits a very low incidence and magnitude of HAEs compared to matches, comparable to in-season training.
  • Future research should focus on identifying players with high cumulative HAEs and the underlying reasons.
  • This study provides a comprehensive understanding of HAE exposure throughout a rugby season for benchmarking purposes.