Saracens’ protective patches are a game-changer not a gimmick | Sean Ingle

The protective ear plasters worn by Sarries players can pioneer the monitoring, and ultimately the prevention, of serious head injuries• Saracens introduce head impact monitoring in win over London IrishWhen those images of Saracens players wearing what looked like a jumbo-sized plaster underneath their right earlobes against London Irish were broadcast last week, the initial reaction was bemusement: what is it? What does it do? We quickly discovered it had a name: the x-Patch, created by the Seattle-based company X2 Biosystems, to monitor the force of blows to the head. Yet for some the bemus…