Abstract
BackgroundThis systematic review was conducted with the first objective aimed at providing an overview of the physiological characteristics commonly evaluated in rugby and the corresponding tests used to measure each construct. Secondly, the measurement properties of all identified tests per physiological construct were evaluated with the ultimate purpose of identifying tests with strongest level of evidence per construct.MethodsThe review was conducted in two stages. In all stages, electronic databases of EBSCOhost, Medline and Scopus were searched for full-text articles. Stage 1 included studies examining physiological characteristics in rugby. Stage 2 included studies evaluating measurement properties of all tests identified in Stage 1 either in rugby or related sports such as Australian Rules football and Soccer. Two independent reviewers screened relevant articles from titles and abstracts for both stages.ResultsSeventy studies met the inclusion criteria for Stage 1. The studies described 63 tests assessing speed (8), agility/change of direction speed (7), upper-body muscular endurance (8), upper-body muscular power (6), upper-body muscular strength (5), anaerobic endurance (4), maximal aerobic power (4), lower-body muscular power (3), prolonged high-intensity intermittent running ability/endurance (5), lower-body muscular strength (5), repeated high-intensity exercise performance (3), repeated-sprint ability (2), repeated-effort ability (1), maximal aerobic speed (1) and abdominal endurance (1). Stage 2 identified 20 studies describing measurement properties of 21 different tests. Only moderate evidence was found for the reliability of the 30–15 Intermittent Fitness. There was limited evidence found for the reliability and/or validity of 5 m, 10 m, 20 m speed tests, 505 test, modified 505 test, L run test, Sergeant Jump test and bench press repetitions-to-fatigue tests. There was no information from high-quality studies on the measurement properties of all the other tests identified in stage 1.ConclusionA number of physiological characteristics are evaluated in rugby. Each physiological construct has multiple tests for measurement. However, there is paucity of information on measurement properties from high-quality studies for the tests. This raises questions about the usefulness and applicability of these tests in rugby and creates a need for high-quality future studies evaluating measurement properties of these physiological tests.Trial registrationsPROSPERO CRD 42015029747.
Highlights
This systematic review was conducted with the first objective aimed at providing an overview of the physiological characteristics commonly evaluated in rugby and the corresponding tests used to measure each construct
There are numerous studies in the literature that have provided scientific evidence on the physiological characteristics of rugby players. This has been necessitated by the drive to understand the physiological factors that differentiate between playing levels and the physiological characteristics associated with optimal performance [1, 2, 7, 10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]
This review identified 15 physiological characteristics commonly evaluated among rugby players
Summary
This systematic review was conducted with the first objective aimed at providing an overview of the physiological characteristics commonly evaluated in rugby and the corresponding tests used to measure each construct. The players engage in physically demanding contests such as tackles, rucks and mauls with the primary objective of gaining possession of the ball [6] These contests require players to possess a wide range of physiological characteristics such as strength, power and endurance which allows them to be stronger and fatigue-resistant [7,8,9,10]. Till et al [18] compared longitudinal changes in physical qualities with career attainment status and found that advanced physical qualities such as absolute strength during the adolescence period contributed significantly to the attainment of professional status in rugby All these findings suggest an important relationship between physiological characteristics and future career success, physical performance and team selection [15, 17, 18]
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