#RSNLive15

Tuesday 15th September 2015

University of Bath

Conference Proceedings

www.rsnlive15.com

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An Introduction

Welcome!

#RSNLive15 is the inaugural Conference of the World Rugby Science Network, a two-day event taking place at the

University of Bath (15th Sep 2015) and University of Cape Town (16th Sep 2015), with all talks also being live

webcasted.

Our inaugural conference is part of the World Rugby Science Network’s strategy to showcase leading international

research relevant to the rugby codes. Our goal is to deliver an exciting, accessible and informative event which will

be of interest to the membership of the Network and others involved in rugby and related sports.

The excellent line up of speakers will share their current work across all of the World Rugby Science Network’s

sections, including biomechanics, coaching science, injury prevention, match analysis, nutrition, physiology &

conditioning, psychology, sports medicine, and strength & power. We also wish to thank our speakers for embracing

the blended delivery format – presenting to a live audience and to an online audience via the live webcast.

A number of our delegates have submitted ePosters to stimulate discussion of their research with other delegates

via the discussion tools on the conference web site – rsnlive15.com. Please do take the opportunity to read the

posters and engage with the authors.

If you haven’t already, please consider joining the World Rugby Science Network to receive contemporary research

to your mailbox and to put you in touch with other like-minded individuals around the world – more details at

http://playerwelfare.worldrugby.org/sciencenetwork.

We are very pleased to be hosting the first day of the conference from the University of Bath campus and hope that

the conference proves to be a rewarding professional experience for all of our contributors and delegates.

The RS@Bath Team

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Keynote Lectures

Keynote 1: Dr Graeme Close (Liverpool John Moores University) – ‘Sport Nutrition in Elite Rugby: Separating Fact from

Fiction’

Sport Nutrition is now an integral part of athletic performance playing a pivotal role in body composition, game-day

performance, recovery and immune health. Nutritional research is vast, sometimes complex and often equivocal; it is

therefore not surprising that nutritional advice generates more mixed messages than any other sports science discipline.

Current areas of controversy include, but are not limited to, the carbohydrate requirements of athletes, frequency and

total amount of daily protein and the extremely volatile area of nutritional supplements. This presentation will critically

appraise some of the fundamental research in these 3 areas (including work from his own laboratory) and explore how the

presenter has attempted to implement this research in his applied practice in elite rugby players. Novel data from the

authors laboratory will be presented which has attempted to fill some of the gaps between fundamental science and

applied practice and will include muscle biopsy data from elite rugby players taken prior to and following a competitive

fixture.

A former professional Rugby League player, Graeme is now a Reader in Applied Physiology and Sport Nutrition at Liverpool

John Moores University where he is the programme leader for the MSc Sport Nutrition. His research is focused on basic and

applied sport nutrition where he has published ~75 papers and review articles. He is accredited with the UKSCA, BASES and

SENr. He is currently the deputy chair of SENr and has recently been awarded a fellowship with BASES. Graeme is the

expert nutrition consultant to England Rugby, consults to several Super League Rugby League Clubs, he is the lead

nutritionist with British Ski and Snowboard and nutrition consultant to many European Tour Golfers.

Keynote 2: Prof Mike McGuigan (Auckland University of Technology) – ‘Strength and Power Profiling in Rugby Union:

Applications for Training Programmes’

This session will discuss the use of strength and power profiling for rugby union. The latest applied research will be

presented and different approaches for selecting testing batteries will be explained. A key focus of the session will be how

the information obtained from strength and power profiling can be used to inform training programme design.

Mike McGuigan is a Professor of Strength and Conditioning in the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand at

Auckland University of Technology. From 2009-2012 he was a Power Scientist for High Performance Sport New Zealand

where he worked with a number of sports including rugby. Mike is currently Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of

Strength and Conditioning Research and Associate Editor for the International Journal of Sports Physiology and

Performance. Mike also supervises a number of postgraduate students completing research on strength and conditioning

for rugby.

Keynote 3: Prof Carolyn Emery (University of Calgary) – ‘Injury Prevention in Youth Sport’’

Injuries are the leading cause of disability in children and adolescents and the economic impact is significant. Sport is the

leading cause of injury in youth. Over 30% of youth will seek medical attention annually for a sport injury. A summary of

the injury burden in youth sport and evidence-informed injury prevention practice and policy will be presented. In

addition, evidence informing the prevention of long term consequences associated with youth sport injury (e.g. post-

traumatic osteoarthritis) will be discussed.

Carolyn Emery is a physiotherapist and epidemiologist. She is the Associate Dean Research and Professor in the Faculty of

Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. She holds joint appointments in Pediatrics and Community Health Sciences,

Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. The focus of her research program is in injury prevention in youth sport

and recreation and pediatric rehabilitation, aimed to reduce the public health burden of injury including long-term

consequences (e.g. overweight/obesity, post-traumatic osteoarthritis). Dr. Emery holds a Chair in Pediatric Rehabilitation

(Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute) and is Co-Chair of the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre

(International Olympic Committee) at the University of Calgary. She Co-Leads the Alberta Program in Youth Sport and

Recreational Injury Prevention (Alberta Innovates Health Solutions) and Safe to Play Concussion Research Team (Canadian

Institutes for Health Research).

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Session: Player Load Monitoring

‘Current thinking and practice for managing training, health and wellbeing of the modern-day rugby player’

This session will explore the current research and applied practices employed to optimise performance, health and

minimise injury risk of players involved in the physically and psychologically stressful rugby environment.

Dr Craig Twist (University of Chester) - Challenges of assessing and interpreting player load during training and

competition

Practitioners are under increasing pressure to quantify training adaptations and to ensure that players remain healthy in

order to perform on a daily basis. With increased research interest and advances in technology, a plethora of monitoring

tools are now readily used to monitor and manage rugby players in the training and playing environment. However, the

utility of these tools and their data remains unclear. This talk will address some of the current measurement issues facing

practitioners and how data might be used to manage player fatigue and readiness to perform.

Craig Twist is a researcher and applied practitioner from the University of Chester, whose interests focus on player

monitoring and conditioning. He is an accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist with the BASES and currently serves as a

consultant to the Rugby Football League.

Prof Steve Mellalieu (Cardiff Metropolitan University) - Designing and Implementing a Monitoring System within

Professional Rugby Union

This talk will describe some of the challenges involved in the design and implementation of a player monitoring system

within a professional rugby union squad. Specific reference will be made to considerations regarding the collection and

processing of player data, availability of resources and logistic and time constraints. Key findings from the monitoring

process will also be discussed and implications for the management of load to promote readiness to train and overall

player welfare highlighted.

Stephen Mellalieu is a researcher and applied practitioner at Cardiff Metropolitan University. His research interests lie in in

the areas of player welfare and education. Steve is an accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist with the British Association of

Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) and a Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Registered Psychologist. He is also

Editor and Co-founder of the World Rugby Science Network.

Dr Sean Williams (University of Bath) – Modelling the load-injury relationship in rugby: Latest evidence and future

directions

Our understanding of the interaction between player loads and injury risk in rugby is still developing. Analysing this

relationship requires the consideration of a wide range of practical and statistical issues. This talk will address some of

those considerations, and will discuss the most recent evidence regarding the load-injury relationship in rugby, as well as

future directions for understanding this interaction.

Sean Williams is a lecturer in Applied Statistics at the University of Bath. His PhD research focussed on identifying risk

factors for injury in elite Rugby Union players using various statistical modelling techniques. His current research interests

revolve around understanding how training and match loads influence injury risk, identifying the most appropriate way to

model and analyse those relationships, and exploring ways to predict (and prevent) injuries occurring in this setting.

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Session: Biomechanics & Injury Mechanisms

‘Using mechanical and engineering principles to improve performance and maintain player health in rugby’

This session will introduce some contemporary examples of research utilising biomechanical and engineering tools to

better understand technique and equipment requirements for improving performance and reducing injury risk in

rugby

Dr Neil Bezodis (St Mary’s University) - Lower limb mechanics during rugby place kicking: Considerations for physical

preparation

Despite the important role that place kicking performance plays in achieving success in professional Rugby Union, the key

technical features of place kicking have not been widely investigated. This talk will explore the current understanding of

this area by discussing specific technique features of place kicking mechanics from recent and ongoing research, and will

consider the implications of these characteristics for performance enhancement and injury prevention.

Neil Bezodis is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Biomechanics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. His research primarily

focusses on understanding how lower limb musculoskeletal mechanics contribute to performance in rugby activities such

as place kicking and sprint acceleration. Neil is an Editorial Board Member of the World Rugby Science Network and a

Director of the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports.

Dr Dario Cazzola (University of Bath) – Analysis of the biomechanical loading and mechanisms of injury on cervical spine

structures during rugby contact events

Contact events in Rugby Union, such as scrummaging and tackling, have the potential to result in both acute and chronic

injuries at the cervical spine level. A better understanding of the mechanisms of injury is key to minimise their occurrence.

This talk will overview how a computer simulation approach, driven by in vivo data, can be used to calculate the internal

anatomical loading of the cervical spine structures during both experimental trials and simulated ‘what if…’ scenarios. The

outputs of these simulations can provide more insight into for example vertebral joint loading and neck muscle activation

patterns during rugby activities, and inform the design of training programmes and injury prevention interventions.

Dario Cazzola is a lecturer in biomechanics at the University of Bath. His research focuses on human movement analysis

and biomechanics of injury in sport. His research approach is multidisciplinary and embraces both in vivo and in silico

(musculoskeletal modelling) analysis of sporting activities, with the final aim to provide a better understanding of the

mechanisms of injury to inform injury prevention efforts.

Dr Ben Halkon (Loughborough University) – Personal protective equipment in sport: Design, testing, and

implementation

This talk will consider some of the important issues which need to be considered when introducing personal protective

equipment into the sports context, using recent work involved with the revision of BS 7928:2013 Specification for head

protectors for cricketers as a key example. The revisions include a new series of tests to determine the ability of the

helmet to prevent the ball penetrating the peak-grille gap, a cause of an increasing number of injuries in recent years.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests that with newer, stiffer helmets, designed in response to the revised Standard,

occurrences of lacerations and fractures have reduced but occurrences of concussions have increased. The talk will

attempt to draw parallels between what is happening in cricket and rugby in this regard and look to future opportunities

to investigate such issues through the use of enhanced biofidelic test systems at Loughborough University’s Sports

Technology Institute.

Dr Ben Halkon is a Lecturer in the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Electrical Engineering, Loughborough

University (LU) specialising in Sports Technology among other disciplines. He is an IMechE Chartered Mechanical Engineer

and holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from LU for work on laser-based non-contact vibration measurement

techniques. He has undertaken recent, industrially funded research projects in the area of sports impact biomechanics and

is generally interested in sports personal protective equipment research.

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Session: Developing the Youth Rugby Player

The progression of junior rugby union players into professional or international players is accepted as a non-linear

journey. In recent years, the emphasis on developing young rugby players has resulted in an increase in the application of

talent identification and development programmes to support this journey. This session will explore current research and

practical applications of factors associated with the holistic development of the youth rugby player.

Alun Powell (Rugby Football Union) - Rugby Union Player Development System

The Regional Academies are a collaboration between the RFU and the professional game and exist to develop players for

the Premiership and England. This session will outline the climate of player development in England, the structure of the

academy system and an overview of the players being produced.

Alun Powell is Head of Regional Academies for the Rugby Football Union and works with the 14 licenced academies to

develop players for the Premiership and England. Alun has Masters in Sports Coaching Science and is an RFU Level 4 coach

and has worked in academy systems for the last 15 years with the RFU, Rugby Football League, Scottish Rugby and Wasps.

Dr Kevin Till (Leeds Beckett University) - Maturation of the Youth Rugby Player: Implications for Player Identification

and Development

Maturation is the timing and tempo of progress towards the mature adult state, which varies considerably between

individuals during adolescence. Within rugby, earlier maturing players are more likely to experience greater playing,

selection and development opportunities than their later maturing peers. This presentation aims to overview maturation

and the advantages associated with earlier maturation but also consider how understanding the process of maturation

may enhance long term development opportunities for the later maturing player.

Kevin Till is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching at Leeds Beckett University and completed his PhD on talent identification

and development in rugby league. Kevin now co-leads the Carnegie Adolescent Rugby Research (CARR) project and also

works as a Strength and Conditioning Coach at Yorkshire Carnegie RUFC and Leeds Rhinos RLFC.

Dr Sean Cumming (University of Bath) - New directions in the assessment and study of growth and maturation in the

context of elite youth sports.

To optimise athletic development, young rugby players should be considered and trained in accordance with their

developmental stage and not just their chronological age. To achieve this objective, National Governing Bodies and

professional sports clubs need to develop a more systematic set of procedures and guidelines for the better measurement

of growth and maturation, and the grouping of players for training and competition. This presentation discusses and

evaluates some of the most recent strategies being implemented in football, tennis, and rugby to address the impact of

relative age and biological maturation, with a particular emphasis on the benefits and challenges of bio-banding.

Sean Cumming is Senior Lecturer in sport and exercise science in the Department for Health at the University of Bath.

Sean’s research focus explores how individual differences in growth and maturation contribute towards adolescent

development in the contexts of sport and exercise. Dr Cumming works in in research and consultancy roles with the Premier

League, Lawn Tennis Association and Bath Rugby.

Danny Grewcock MBE - Holistic Development of the Youth Rugby Player

Focusing on the development of the individual away from the rugby field to is an important aspect of player development

to develop a self aware, responsible athlete that is in control of their career. This presentation discusses how using

education, work experience and outside interests to maintain motivation and determination in a high pressure

environment of a rugby union academy to assist the holistic development of youth rugby players.

Danny Grewcock completed his degree in Business and spent 16 years as a professional rugby union player with Coventry,

Saracens and Bath. Since retiring in 2011, Danny has stayed with Bath rugby as academy director with the remit of

identifying and developing players for Bath rugby.

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Session: Concussion

‘Concussion in Rugby: What do we know about the short-, medium- and long-term outcomes?’

Concussion is an injury that has received a great deal of attention at all levels of rugby in recent years. In this session

the latest evidence relating to the risk of concussion in professional rugby will be presented, and the evidence

regarding the effects of concussion in the short-, medium- and long-term will be discussed.

Dr Keith Stokes (University of Bath) – Concussion in professional rugby: short and medium term clinical outcomes

and subsequent injury risk

In recent years there has been a clear focus on supporting pitch-side staff in the process of recognising concussion

and removing players at the time of injury. However, there is little evidence relating to the journey that players take

during the recovery from concussion. This presentation will describe the time course of recovery and typical

pathways through the Graduated Return to Play protocol, as well as examining emerging evidence relating to the risk

of injury following return to play.

Keith Stokes is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bath with a background in exercise physiology. His research

focuses on understanding sports injury risk to inform the development and delivery of preventative interventions. He

is responsible for delivering injury surveillance programmes for England Rugby (men and women) and the English

Premiership, as well as men’s community rugby and schools rugby in England. He is an Editor at the International

Journal of Sports Medicine and is co-founder and Network Editor of the World Rugby Science Network. This work is

supported by funding from the Rugby Football Union and Premier Rugby Limited.

Mr Tony Belli (University of Birmingham) – Managing concussion and understanding the outcomes

Tony Belli is Professor of Trauma Neurosurgery and Director of the Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology

Research Centre (SRMCR) based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. The SRMRC is a leading centre for

trauma research and was founded in 2011 with £20M grant from NIHR, MoD, the University of Birmingham and

University Hospitals Birmingham. He heads the neurotrauma research theme, which carries out translational

research on traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. He is also a practising neurosurgeon at the Queen Elizabeth

Hospital where he leads the Neurotrauma service comprised of a formidable team of doctors, nurses and therapists.

Dr Willie Stewart (Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow) – Is there any substance to the current panic over

long-term concussion outcomes?

In the last decade there have been ever increasing reports in the media raising concerns over the long-term health

consequences of exposure to sports concussion, in particular the link to a form of dementia know as chronic

traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). However, behind the headlines, is the research evidence there to support these

concerns? Or are anxieties being raised unnecessarily? On the eve of the Rugby World Cup it is perhaps timely to

review current evidence on the long-term risks of concussion and attempt to address current issues in reporting.

Willie Stewart is Consultant and Lead Neuropathologist at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Hospital, Glasgow,

and holds honorary Associate Professor status at the University of Glasgow (Institute of Neuroscience and

Psychology) and the University of Pennsylvania (Department of Neurosurgery). He trained in Glasgow and has an

internationally recognized research programme directed towards describing the range of pathologies encountered in

acute and long term survivors of traumatic brain injury, with particular reference to the association between TBI and

neurodegenerative disease. This work is supported by funding from the NIH, US DoD and EC.

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University of Bath campus

City of Bath

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Conference Programme – Tuesday 15th September 2015

University of Bath, Bath, UK

Time Session Type Session Topic Speakers

0900-0915 Opening Address Prof Bernie Morley (Deputy VC, Uni of Bath) Dr Ross Tucker (World Rugby)

0915-1015 Keynote 1 Nutrition Dr Graeme Close (Liverpool John Moores Uni)

1015-1100 ePosters & Coffee www.rsnlive15.com

1100-1200 Keynote 2 Strength & Power Prof Mike McGuigan (Auckland Uni Technology)

1200-1300 Presentations & Discussion

Player Load Monitoring Dr Craig Twist (University of Chester) Dr Steve Mellalieu (Cardiff Metropolitan Uni) Dr Sean Williams (University of Bath)

1300-1400 ePosters & Lunch www.rsnlive15.com

1400-1445 Presentations & Discussion

Biomechanics & Injury Mechanisms

Dr Neil Bezodis (St Mary’s University) Dr Dario Cazzola (University of Bath) Dr Ben Halkon (Loughborough University)

1445-1545 Presentations & Discussion

Development of the Youth Player

Dr Kevin Till (Leeds Beckett University) Dr Sean Cumming (University of Bath) Alun Powell (RFU) Danny Grewcock MBE (Bath Rugby)

1545-1600 Coffee

1600-1700 Keynote 3 Injury Prevention in Youth Sport

Prof Carolyn Emery (University of Calgary)

1700-1800 Presentations & Discussion

Concussion Dr Keith Stokes (University of Bath) Dr Willie Stewart (Glasgow Southern General) Prof Tony Belli (University of Birmingham)

1930-late Social Event Bath Brew House