## 5 Conclusions  
Shoulder injuries accounted for 1 in 6 injuries. Various anatomical structures in and around the shoulder were injured during contact scenarios, with the AC joint being the most common and severely involved (>28 days time-loss). The main tissue type implicated in shoulder injuries was the ligament/joint capsule. The rugby positions mostly exposed to contact scenarios are locks (highest severity in injury count), followed by back-three (wing specifically) and loose-forwards (exposed to high severity and momentum). Backline players are mostly involved in higher velocity contact situations compared to forwards being more involved in static contact situations but with a higher collision frequency. Backline players required significantly less momentum than forwards to suffer >28-day injury severity. However, high training, match intensity, and collisions are not associated with more severe injuries. Future use of this technology may assist in understanding the demands of the game and the mechanism of injury, as well the design and implementation of individual position-specific training programs with appropriate player management.  
Future Recommendation
* Area(s) of importance in the shoulder that need special conditioning attention are the AC joint, muscle/tendon and ligaments.
* Future research should investigate the potential risk factor analysis and the association between momentum and injuries.
* Future strength and conditioning research should evaluate various techniques, including tackle, breakdown, scrum, and maul skills, to decrease shoulder injury frequency and severity.
* Future research should note that the contact load/demand placed on specific positions during a training week is additional to match-play and uncontrollable, i.e., collisions per minute (frequency), intensity (meters per minute), and momentum (velocity variable) in contact scenarios.
* Future research should evaluate the function and protective factors that different protective wear offers in decreasing shoulder injury severity.
* In the current level of sport and participation, we recommend that healthcare workers focus specifically on shoulder injury prevention strategies in future research.  
J.G.L.: study concept, study planning, data cleaning, data interpretation, manuscript writing (first draft), manuscript review and editing. A.J.v.R.: study planning, data cleaning, data interpretation, writing of the manuscript (first draft), manuscript review and editing. C.T.V.: data interpretation, writing of the manuscript (first draft), manuscript review and editing. S.H.: data interpretation, manuscript review and editing. T.B.: study planning, data cleaning, statistical analysis, data interpretation, manuscript writing, manuscript review and editing. D.C.J.v.R.: study planning, data cleaning, data interpretation, writing of the manuscript (first draft), manuscript review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria (REC531/2020).  
Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in this study. The director of rugby at the Blue Bulls Company gave consent that the medical data from injuries and the GPS data from matches played over the research period, may be used. Written informed consent has been obtained from the director of rugby of the Blue Bulls Company to publish player data anonymously.  
Data Availability Statement: Data sharing not applicable. No new data were created or analyzed in this study.  
We thank the South African Rugby Franchise Company and the high performance and medical staff for their support, advice, and expertise during this study, specifically [PERSON] and [PERSON].  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.