Irish Rugby Partners With Tech Company On Injury Prevention

The Irish Rugby Football Union and Vald Performance have announced a four-year partnership which aims to monitor and reduce hamstring and groin injuries in professional Irish rugby union players.

The four-year partnership will see the IRFU acquire the NordBord Hamstring Testing System, which measures athletes’ hamstring strength and imbalance (known risk factors for hamstring strain injuries) for the national and provincial teams.
 
The data collected will support the IRFU’s national and provincial teams’ existing player monitoring systems and help to inform training programmes and injury prevention strategies.

Nick Winkelman, the IRFU’s Head of Athletic Performance, said: “Within Irish Rugby we are constantly seeking to improve best practices and deploy strategies that support our players’ performance, robustness and overall career longevity.

“For these reasons, we are very excited to be working with Vald Performance and using the NordBord across our provincial and national set-ups.”

 
Laurie Malone, CEO of Vald Performance, commented: “The IRFU national and provincial teams are demonstrating their progressive philosophy towards athlete wellness in undertaking a wholesale roll out of the NordBord. We are looking forward to working with each organisation over the next four years to help address key injury risk factors with a view to improving player health and performance.”
 
In collaboration with a network of universities, the IRFU and provincial teams have commenced an independent injury risk research study which will collect and monitor metrics in a number of areas of player health and performance, including wellness reports and injury records in order to gain a holistic view of the factors which contribute to injury. 
 
Vald Performance is an Australian-based, research-driven sports technology company that was founded by the Queensland University of Technology in 2015.