World Rugby has approved the headguard, which has been designed specifically for rugby union matchplay. Photo / The Bearded Photographer
World Rugby has approved the headguard, which has been designed specifically for rugby union matchplay. Photo / The Bearded Photographer
Tim Stimpson, a former British and Irish Lions fullback, has seen too many of his friends and teammates suffer the devastating long-term effects of rugby to not do anything.
However, despite the personal pain, Stimpson still holds a deep love for the game - that’s why he’s pouring efforts into making the sport safer - helping design the World Rugby-approved head guard called Hedkayse.
“I love the game, I’m certainly not trying to close it down. I’m trying to make it survive,” Stimpson told the Herald.
“I was acutely aware that some guys and girls have really struggled at the end of their rugby careers. I feel sorry for Carl Hayman and people like Billy Guyon and those guys out in New Zealand.
“I’ve got friends, unfortunately, no longer with us, Robbie Burrows from rugby league and Doddie Weir from the Lions tours, and I’ve got other mates who are suffering from early-onset dementia and brain damage and depression.
“It’s a global sport, and it’s a global family and I want to do all I can to help prevent the kids that are playing now from maybe going through the sort of stuff that some of my generation are having to deal with 20, 30, 40 years later.”
The headgear - or scrum cap as it’s known in the UK - is designed to sit around the entire head and aims to protect the next generation of rugby players. The product uses performance foam from Enkayse and mitigates the direct impact to the head to help reduce lifetime brain injury issues.
Cam Gordon, founder of Titan Healthcare, is the exclusive distributor for Hedkayse in New Zealand. He told the Herald this product stands out from normal headgear, being different in two main ways.
“The material that they use is the product called Enkayse and [it] dissipates energy in a very cunning way, but it’s also temperature-stable, so it doesn’t matter what temperature it is, it will always behave the same.
“Look at existing scrum caps on the market - they have always been marketed, and I would say wrongly, that they can actually help prevent concussion when they really can’t. A lot of the independent testing shows that they just don’t dissipate force.
“[They] don’t claim to be a silver bullet. We just have something that might go a bit of a way to stopping some of the issues that we have with the rugby players.”
The safety cap is approved by World Rugby and designed specifically for rugby union. Photo / Hedkayse
Independent research and testing were carried out by both the British College of Osteopathic Medicine and Imperial College London to develop the product. This was done with an independent and unpaid “design council” made up of former and current players, coaches, referees, doctors, surgeons, designers and engineers.
“We see it like a bank account and that’s in the community game, the elite game as we try to sort of reduce the long-term brain damage that we think linked to the number of times you get a whack on the head,” Stimpson told the Herald.
“You can wear it for training and for matches. It covers the whole head without any weaknesses. It is really well-ventilated, you can get it into your team colours, you can hear your teammates and you can even stick it in the washing machine.”
Hedkayse has taken off in England at all levels, particularly in schoolboy rugby, as more premier and professional players use the product.
Gordon is currently educating clubs, secondary schools and physio clinics across the country about the product as he believes there could be a direct link between CTE and depression and anxiety. Meanwhile, New Zealand Rugby told the Herald in May that rigorous research designs are required to properly compare concussion and CTE.
“Anecdotally, I know a lot of rugby players with concussions who, as a result, have had some pretty serious disease. One really good friend who’s got motor neurone disease, obviously we can’t directly say it’s because of this, but all the signs point to his 20-something years supplying professional rugby.
“We see it a lot in the physio practice that my wife owns, we do the concussion rehab contracts. So we see patients with concussions all day and so there is a lot of anecdotal evidence there to suggest that the link is pretty strong.”
New Zealand Rugby said in a statement to the Herald: “Player welfare is one of NZR’s major priorities and we are absolutely focused on doing everything we can to keep players as safe as possible from the risks of concussion. We believe that we are world-leading in our approach, including providing ongoing care to players through our work with the New Zealand Rugby Players Association, the New Zealand Rugby Foundation, and World Rugby.
“While current traditional headgear worn in rugby was not designed to prevent concussions, we remain committed to closely monitoring global research and emerging developments in headgear design. We will continue to evaluate new evidence to assess whether these innovations can enhance player safety while playing rugby.”
Stimpson says seeing his product reach one of the biggest rugby nations in the world is a positive step as the brand continues to evolve. It’s particularly so as he watches on his former teammate and good mate Scott Robertson coach the All Blacks. The pair played together at the back end of their career for the French team Perpignan.
“I even spoke to Scott [Robertson] about it ... He said ‘Brilliant, I love what you’re doing. I’m gonna introduce you to our medical team.’ And then I figured I’d let him get on with his rugby,” Stimpson said with a laugh.
Stimpson said his motivation for coaching his son’s under-15 team was a major factor in his decision to pursue this career path.
“Rugby’s given me an amazing life, and I don’t want to stop my kids playing rugby, I just want to make it a bit safer,” Stimpson said.
“We’ve got to be honest and grown-up about it and make sure that by raising the level of safety, raising the level of awareness we can raise the level of the game and we can help reduce the anxiety of parents.
“No headguard can prevent all concussions but we can take some of the force away from a blow.”
As a coach, Stimpson’s number one motto is: “If in doubt, you sit them out.”
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Feverpodcast, and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.
