Why Full-Head Coverage Matters: The Critical Case for the Occipital Lobe in Rugby

As the second Test of the British and Irish Lions vs Australia series on 26 July 2025 reminded us, rugby is a brutal and fast-moving sport. The dramatic clearout by Lions flanker Jac Morgan left Australia’s Carlo Tizzano clearly in distress, clutching the back of his head before being taken off. Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt later confirmed that data from Tizzano’s instrumented mouthguard registered the impact as “severe” — a stark reminder of an often-overlooked danger: rear head impacts.

The Back of the Head: A Silent Vulnerability

Despite decades of innovation in rugby headgear, a gaping flaw remains. Most traditional “scrum caps” do not adequately coverage the occipital region — the back of the skull. And science is catching up to show why this matters.

• In rugby, up to 10% of all concussions originate from occipital impacts, second only to temporal and parietal regions [1].
  
  

• In Australian-rules football, which shares similar collision dynamics, video analysis confirms the occipital and temporal areas as the most frequently impacted during falls [2].
  
  

• Biomechanical models show that rear-of-head impacts generate some of the highest brain injury metrics — including linear acceleration and brain strain — compared to other regions [3].
  
  

Yet, every scrum cap still leave the occipital area exposed, with the laces or seams providing minimal benefit [4][5].

Why Protecting the Occipital Lobe is Crucial

The occipital lobe controls vision and visual processing. Damage here doesn’t just mean a bump or bruising—it can cause:

• Vision loss or distortion
  
  

• Long-term headaches
  
  

• Occipital neuralgia (nerve-related head pain)
  
  

• Difficulty with spatial orientation and balance [6]
  
  

And yet, because occipital impacts typically occur during falls—when players hit the turf backwards—they are less visible, but no less dangerous.

Hedkayse R5: Scientifically Engineered for Full-Head Protection

Unlike traditional scrum caps, the Hedkayse R5 headguard is designed to mitigate forces across all critical regions of the skull, including the occipital lobe.

Independent lab testing (300g drop at body temperature) shows:

• Hedkayse R5 headguard averages just 72.8g across all regions, dramatically below other standard scrum caps that average at 237.7g
  
  

• It is the only tested headguard to keep every skull region—frontal, temporal, and occipital—below the sub-concussive threshold.
  
  

Compare the Occipital Protection:

All testing and analysis were independently tested and verified by Dr. William G. Proud, Director of the Institute of Shock Physics and Reader in Shock Physics at Imperial College London, via Imperial Consultants.

Unlike traditional designs that rely on minimal padding and laces over critical zones, the Hedkayse R5 headguard delivers validated, full-head impact mitigation—including the regions most often exposed and most frequently ignored.

Full technical data available upon request.

The Lions Series Wake-Up Call

Carlo Tizzano took a direct hit to the back of the head during a clearout — a moment that played out in real time, showing just how exposed that part of the head can be. He wasn’t wearing a headguard, and we’re not here to claim that any headgear can prevent every outcome. But when impact happens, what you're wearing matters.

While the debate raged around intent and legality, the real question is being missed:

Why are we still settling for headgear that leaves key areas exposed?

All-around coverage and proven impact absorption aren’t optional—they’re essential. And if your headguard doesn’t deliver both, it’s not built for the game as it is today.

Conclusion: The Most Dangerous Impacts Are the Ones You Don’t See Coming

The game is evolving—and so are the athletes. Fast, fearless, and future-focused, today’s players demand gear that can keep up.

At Hedkayse, we don’t believe in half-measures or heritage for heritage’s sake. The R5 was built to challenge the status quo, designed from the ground up to cover what others leave exposed.

Because tomorrow’s game won’t wait for yesterday’s gear to catch up.

Hedkayse R5: Full coverage. No compromise. Built for what’s next.

References

[1] Knouse, C. L., Gould, T. E., Caswell, S. V., & Deivert, R. G. (2003). Efficacy of Rugby Headgear in Attenuating Repetitive Linear Impact Forces. Journal of athletic training, 38(4), 330–335.
[2] Savage, L., McDonald, J., & Nguyen, T. (2022). Video-based analysis of head impact locations in Australian rules football: Implications for protective equipment design. Griffith University Sports Science Research Reports, 4(2), 17–25.
[3] Perkins, A., Hughes, R., & Simmons, D. (2022). Rear-head impacts and brain strain: Findings from the ORCA headform in soccer collision scenarios. Journal of Biomechanics, 125, 110789. doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2022.110789
[4] Thomas, A., Brennan, P., & Yu, K. (2021). Protective headgear in rugby union: A systematic review of performance, design, and injury prevention outcomes. Sports Engineering, 24(1), 45–61. doi:10.1007/s12283-021-00357-w
[5] American College of Sports Medicine (2020). Occipital neuralgia and traumatic sports injury: Recognition and management. ACSM Sports Medicine Bulletin, 55(6), 14–19. [6]Laguerre, M., McGargill, S., & Herman, D. C. (2020). Occipital Neuralgia—A Masquerading Cause of Concussion Symptoms. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 19(9), 344.