Identifying representative test parameters to assess skin laceration injury risk for individual studs

Skin injuries account for ∼6% of all injuries in rugby union. Skin lacerations resulting from stud–skin interactions in rugby union are frequently caused by stamping in the ruck (Oudshoorn, Driscoll, Dunn, & James, 2016 Oudshoorn, B. Y., Driscoll, H. F., Dunn, M., & James, D. (2016). Procedia Engineering, 147, 496–500. [CrossRef], [Google Scholar] ). Stud design is regulated by World Rugby's Regulation 12, but no supporting evidence currently exists for the selected test parameters used in these standards. Ideally, mechanical tests that assess injury risk should replicate conditions observed during play (Ura & Carré, 2016 Ura, D., & Carré, M. (2016). Procedia Engineering, 147, 550–555. [CrossRef], [Google Scholar] ). Relevant mechanical test parameters, such as foot inbound velocity, stud impact energy, inclination angle and effective mass, can be derived through biomechanical analysis of rugby stamping. However, due to human movement variability, the measured kinetics and kinematics of stamping impacts can have a large range and replicating all possible parameters within a mechanical test device is unfeasible. Identifying different stamp techniques by clustering provides an economical solution.