Six Nations history for George Turner as mouthguard alert triggers removal for Scotland hooker

New technology led to HIA assessment during first half of France match

Scotland hooker George Turner made Six Nations history against France on Saturday when he became the first player in the tournament to be removed from play for a head injury assessment (HIA) on the basis of an alert from his mouthguard.

The new technology is designed to improve player protection and all six teams are using custom-fitted instrumented mouthguards to deliver in-game information to an independent pitch-side medical team.

If a player experiences “a head acceleration event” the medics will receive an alert and inform team doctors and match officials that a player needs to be removed for a “HIA1 assessment”. The Six Nations is the first elite men’s competition to use the new technology.

Scotland hooker George Turner had to come off against France for a head injury assessment which was triggered by an alert from his mouthguard. (Picture: Ross Parker - SNS Group)

Turner passed his HIA and was able to return to play after the mandatory 10 minutes. Ewan Ashman came on as a temporary replacement while Turner was assessed. Gregor Townsend confirmed the incident has been triggered by a mouthguard alert.

“It was,” said the Scotland coach. “The first one. I watched the incident and it looked a fairly normal tackle. The big ball-carrier ran into George who tackled hard but George was taken off because of the mouthguard alert.

“I don’t think there was any more that came out of that but we just have to watch what we’re doing here with bringing technology in that might have an influence for not the correct reasons, let’s say. But thankfully George came back on after ten minutes and I thought Ewan Ashman played really well in that period, and did when he came off the bench at the end too.”