Abstract
As women's rugby league grows, the need for understanding the movement patterns of the sport is essential for coaches and sports scientists. The aims of the present study were to quantify the position-specific demographics, technical match statistics, and movement patterns of the National Rugby League Women's (NRLW) Premiership and to identify whether there was a change in the intensity of play as a function of game time played. A retrospective observational study was conducted utilizing global positioning system, demographic, and match statistics collected from 117 players from all NRLW clubs across the full 2018 and 2019 seasons and were compared between the ten positions using generalized linear mixed models. The GPS data were separated into absolute (i.e., total distance, high-speed running distance, and acceleration load) and relative movement patterns (i.e., mean speed, mean high speed (> 12 km·h−1), and mean acceleration). For absolute external outputs, fullbacks covered the greatest distance (5,504 m), greatest high-speed distance (1,081 m), and most ball-carry meters (97 m), while five-eighths recorded the greatest acceleration load (1,697 m·s−2). For relative external outputs, there were no significant differences in mean speed and mean high speed between positions, while mean acceleration only significantly differed between wingers and interchanges. Only interchange players significantly decreased in mean speed as their number of minutes played increased. By understanding the load of NRLW matches, coaches, high-performance staff, and players can better prepare as the NRLW Premiership expands. These movement patterns and match statistics of NRLW matches can lay the foundation for future research as women's rugby league expands. Similarly, coaches, high-performance staff, and players can also refine conditioning practices with a greater understanding of the external output of NRLW players.
Highlights
The National Rugby League Women’s (NRLW) Premiership is the highest level of domestic rugby league competition for women in Australia
Similar patterns were reflected in acceleration load where there were no significant differences between any back or halves position, while props were significantly lower than all other starting positions
When comparing movement patterns expressed relative to time, there were no significant differences in the relative distance metrics (MS and mean speed when traveling >12 km·h−1 (MS12)) between any of the positions
Summary
The National Rugby League Women’s (NRLW) Premiership is the highest level of domestic rugby league competition for women in Australia. NRLW Movement Patterns league rules set by the Rugby League International Federation with the exception that NRLW matches are 60 min comprised of two 30-min halves, half time is 15 min, allow ten interchanges in each match, and observe a 40/30 kick advantage. A review of movement patterns in field-based sports spanning maximal speed, highspeed thresholds and movement patterns has been conducted in women (Hodun et al, 2016); the movement patterns of players competing in elite-level women’s rugby league has been rarely explored in the scientific literature (Quinn et al, 2020). With an 18% year-on-year growth in women’s rugby league participation (National Rugby League, 2020), the NRLW Premiership is set to expand in the number of teams over the coming years. To ensure that the level of competition does not regress as a function of including more teams, there is a need for emerging players to be sufficiently trained and conditioned to compete at the elite level, such as those described in the present study
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