As part of the drive to monitor players' health through technology, global representative body International Rugby Players (IRP) has also assigned elite players a "load-passport" ahead of this year's contest.
This is essentially an app used by players to log training sessions and matches as they move between club and international rugby, allowing them to keep track of their workload in a move to avoid "chronic burnout".
"The idea is that it is player-driven," said Omar Hassanein, IRP chief executive. "Aside from just the strength and conditioning coach taking responsibility for that aspect, the players also manage their own load passport — essentially through an app — and they try to track their own load management." It is not the only technology in rugby looking to help with the sport's considerable force. Players have worn concussion sensors on their ears, while Scottish start-up LiveSkin Sports, founded by Edinburgh University alumni Jack Ng and Charlie Patterson, have created wearable intelligent sensors worn under jerseys that can measure the impact of tackles.
The sensors send analysis of the force of impact and the muscles used to a connected app. In theory, this can then be used to improve a player's technique when it comes to tackling or scrummage and help medical staff plan a player's recuperation after training or rehabilitation after injury.
As well as fitness and well-being, new technology is also being employed by World Cup coaches to fine-tune tactics. Namely: drones. From Scotland and England to Samoa and Fiji, a vast array of World Cup teams are using flying cameras to record training sessions, plan attacking line breaks and set-pieces and identify weaknesses in their scrum from above.
"I think we could have been the first union to use them," said Scotland team manager Graham Scott.
"It gives you the one thing you want, which you don't get from a single camera, which is the space in between players, and the space in behind players.
''If you want a tactical view, the drone is the shot to have."
Analysts and coaches can then cut individual clips for players' positioning, even providing advisory voice-overs on a player-by-player basis.
And in a sport of fine margins, ferocious force and often complex rulings, accurate enacting of the laws is essential.
In Japan, Basingstoke-based company Hawkeye Innovations — perhaps more recognised for its use in tennis and cricket — is further expanding the use of its video technology to aid rugby referees.
Hawkeye now provides the technology for the Television Match Official (TMO), able to review video replays from a myriad of angles to aid the on-pitch referee in close calls. Previously, the TMO was able to review footage only from the television broadcasters, but the expanded technology — first introduced at the 2015 World Cup in England — gave officials greater control over incidents.
But Hawkeye's use at the World Cup is not just to judge whether a ball was grounded properly for a try or not. The match feeds are used by "stats loggers" to more accurately deliver analytics. And perhaps most pressingly, as rugby wrestles with its problems with concussion, Hawkeye will also provide real-time footage to team medics wielding tablets pitchside and doctors in treatment rooms to help identify and diagnose injuries.
And what about the humble observer?
While watching rugby has been enhanced by the use of the TMO to help spectators understand tight calls and technology like Hawkeye providing big screens and hospitality suites with more angles, there is more tech developed with the crowd and television viewers in mind.
Japanese camera company Canon, for example, has developed a 3D replay system for games at the International Stadium in Yokohama which captures action from multiple viewpoints.
This image data is then processed to allow a virtual camera to move around the 3D space, placing viewers on to the pitch.
And in the future, we could see new "goal-light" technology created by Michael Press. Should the goal attempt miss, the lights will flash red.
According to Press, this addresses an issue in rugby where occasionally it can be difficult to see the success of a goal attempt in a sprawling stadium.
Currently it is activated manually when the line-judges raise their flags to signal a successful kick. But in the future it is easy to see the technology adapted to work when a ball sails through (or wide of) the posts.
Some purists may scoff at the adoption of such technology. But time and again, rugby has shown itself as a grand old sport willing to adopt new innovations to improve the game for players, officials and spectators alike.
A challenge rugby will undoubtedly continue to tackle.
Cutting edge on and off the field
GPS sensors by STATSports: Elite players have long worn sensors under shirts to measure performance, but the tech continues to offer more data on intensity, heart-rate, speed and fatigue.
Drones: The birdseye view can give coaches angles not seen from traditional cameras.
Video by Hawkeye: Used by analysts and match doctors in real-time for stat-logging and medical assessments.
... and some for the future
Concussion sensing mouthguards by X-patch: Technologies are being developed to better understand the impact of concussion. Companies are developing cutting-edge impact sensors that can be worn on the ear or even embedded into the players' mouthguards.
LiveSkin by Sansible Wearables: Similar to GPS sensors, the Scottish developed LiveSkin technology can be embedded in sportswear to record performance data which is then sent to an app powered by AI.
