Rugby Union World Research Articles

Performance Science Domains: Contemporary Strategies for Teams Preparing for the Rugby World Cup.

As the start of the 10th Rugby Union World Cup approaches, performance staff will be working on the final elements of their teams' preparation. Much of this planning and preparation will be underpinned by the latest performance science research. In this invited commentary, we discuss contemporary performance science research in rugby union centered around 4 key performance domains. First, we outline a systematic approach to developing an overall understanding of the game demands and how performance staff can enhance the players' preparedness for competition. We then move on to outline our understanding of the training science domain, followed by a brief overview of effective recovery strategies at major tournaments. Finally, we outline research in the area of competition-day strategies and how they can positively impact players' readiness to compete. Evaluating a team's preparation for the Rugby Union World Cup can be achieved by mapping their performance plan based on the 4 domains outlined above.

The epidemiology of head injuries at 2019 Rugby Union World Cup

ABSTRACT Introduction The sequelae of concussion are of growing concern within Rugby. World Rugby has introduced rule changes to improve player welfare and reduce head injury frequency. We aimed to report the incidence of head injuries and head injury assessment (HIA) at the 2019 Rugby World Cup (RWC). Methods We reviewed all 45 tournament matches and recorded the number of head injuries, the injured player’s position, and the mechanism of injury; whether the player had an HIA; and if they returned to play following injury. We compared these findings with previous RWCs. Results We recorded 68 head injuries (1.33/game). Thirty-six players (52.9%) were removed from the field of play for an HIA. Of these, 23 (63.9%) failed and therefore considered to have concussion. The head injury rate in 2019 was 37.8 per 1000 player hours, which increased from previous tournaments (22.0 in 2015, 14.6 in 2011, and 4.7 in 2007). The concussion rate was 23 per 1000 player hours in 2019, which was lower than 29 in 2015. In 2019, 63.9% of HIAs were failed compared to 48.7% in 2015. We identified 17 cases where medical staff did not attend to a player suffering a head injury on-field. Of these, four players underwent an HIA after the match doctor reviewed the incident. Conclusion We recorded a higher rate of head injuries, and a player was more likely to fail their HIA than in previous tournaments. These findings may represent a greater awareness from medical staff and the benefits of education. However, 25% of head injuries not receiving an initial on-field assessment provide room for improvement.

Hot hands, cold feet? Investigating effects of interacting constraints on place kicking performance at the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup

Place kicks in Rugby Union present valuable opportunities to score points outside the spatiotemporal dynamics of open play but are executed under varying performance constraints. We analysed effects of specific task constraints and relevant contextual factors on place kick performance in the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup. Data were collected from television broadcasts for each place kick. In addition to kick outcomes, contextual factors, including time of the kick in the match, score margin at the time of the kick, and outcome of the kicker’s previous kick, were recorded. Effects of spatial task constraints were analysed for each kick, using distance (m) and angle (°) of the kick to the goalposts. A binomial logistic regression model revealed that distance from, and angle to, the goalposts were significant predictors of place kick outcome. Furthermore, the success percentage of kickers who missed their previous kick was 7% lower than those who scored their previous kick. Place kick success percentage in the 10 minutes before half-time was 8% lower than the mean tournament success percentage, which was 75% (95% CI 71–78%). The highest kick success percentage was recorded when scores were level (83%; 95% CI 72–91%). Our data highlighted how subtle changes in task constraints and contextual factors can influence performance outcomes in elite performers in international competition. Fluctuations in place kick success suggested that individual constraints, such as thoughts, emotions and fatigue, induced during competition, could interact with perceptions to influence emergent performance behaviours.

The accuracy and reproducibility of video assessment in the pitch-side management of concussion in elite rugby.

To investigate the accuracy and reliability of side-line video review of head impact events to aid identification of concussion in elite sport. Diagnostic accuracy and inter-rater agreement study. Immediate care, match day and team doctors involved in the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup viewed 20 video clips showing broadcaster's footage of head impact events occurring during elite Rugby matches. Subjects subsequently recorded whether any criteria warranting permanent removal from play or medical room head injury assessment were present. The accuracy of these ratings were compared to consensus expert opinion by calculating mean sensitivity and specificity across raters. The reproducibility of doctor's decisions was additionally assessed using raw agreement and Gwets AC1 chance corrected agreement coefficient. Forty rugby medicine doctors were included in the study. Compared to the expert reference standard overall sensitivity and specificity of doctors decisions were 77.5% (95% CI 73.1-81.5%) and 53.3% (95% CI 48.2-58.2%) respectively. Overall there was raw agreement of 67.8% (95% CI 57.9-77.7%) between doctors across all video clips. Chance corrected Gwets AC1 agreement coefficient was 0.39 (95% CI 0.17-0.62), indicating fair agreement. Rugby World Cup doctors' demonstrated moderate accuracy and fair reproducibility in head injury event decision making when assessing video clips of head impact events. The use of real-time video may improve the identification, decision making and management of concussion in elite sports.

Understanding team resilience in the world's best athletes: A case study of a rugby union World Cup winning team

ObjectiveAlthough team resilience research has identified the characteristics of elite sport teams that positively adapt to adversity, further research is required to understand how resilient teams function. The objective of this study, therefore, was to explore the psychosocial processes underpinning team resilience in elite sport. DesignNarrative inquiry was employed to better understand team resilience. MethodThe sample consisted of eight members of the 2003 England rugby union World Cup winning team. The autobiographies of these team members were analyzed using three types of narrative analyzes: holistic-content analysis, holistic-form analysis, and categorical-form analysis. ResultsFindings revealed five main psychosocial processes underpinning team resilience: transformational leadership, shared team leadership, team learning, social identity, and positive emotions. An examination of narrative structure within the autobiographies revealed a progressive narrative form characterized by a collective positive evaluation of setbacks. ConclusionsThis study extends previous team resilience research by going beyond the identification of resilient characteristics to explaining underpinning psychosocial processes. The team resilience processes are discussed in relation to previous research findings and in terms of their implications for practising sport psychologists. It is anticipated that this study will provide practitioners with a framework to develop team resilience at the highest levels of sport.

Prior analysis and scheduling of the 2011 Rugby Union ITM Cup in New Zealand

This paper describes work done for the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) in preparation for their most important wholly domestic competition in 2011. This competition had to be played during a shorter timescale than usual because of the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup, and the NZRU were keen to ensure that they could incorporate the format they wanted into this timescale without unfortunate consequences. In addition, they wanted to introduce a novel feature into this tournament. Thus some detailed prior experimental, or ‘what-if’, analysis was necessary. This paper describes this analysis and its results. As a result of this analysis, the NZRU was persuaded to abandon one of its design ideas, but was able to proceed with others, enabling them to announce the detailed format of the competition in the confidence that it would work well in practice. Subsequent scheduling of the competition in this format proved successful, and the resulting schedule is shown together with detailed analysis of its notional costs. The paper demonstrates how important it can be for schedulers to be closely involved in tournament design in advance of the actual scheduling.

Complex dynamics in the distribution of players’ scoring performance in Rugby Union world cups

The evolution of the scoring performance of Rugby Union players is investigated over the seven rugby world cups (RWC) that took place from 1987 to 2011, and a specific attention is given to how they may have been impacted by the switch from amateurism to professionalism that occurred in 1995. The distribution of the points scored by individual players, Ps, ranked in order of performance were well described by the simplified canonical law Ps∝(r+ϕ)−α, where r is the rank, and ϕ and α are the parameters of the distribution. The parameter α did not significantly change from 1987 to 2007 (α=0.92±0.03), indicating a negligible effect of professionalism on players’ scoring performance. In contrast, the parameter ϕ significantly increased from ϕ=1.32 for 1987 RWC, ϕ=2.30 for 1999 to 2003 RWC and ϕ=5.60 for 2007 RWC, suggesting a progressive decrease in the relative performance of the best players. Finally, the sharp decreases observed in both α(α=0.38) and ϕ(ϕ=0.70) in the 2011 RWC indicate a more even distribution of the performance of individuals among scorers, compared to the more heterogeneous distributions observed from 1987 to 2007, and suggest a sharp increase in the level of competition leading to an increase in the average quality of players and a decrease in the relative skills of the top players. Note that neither α nor ϕ significantly correlate with traditional performance indicators such as the number of points scored by the best players, the number of games played by the best players, the number of points scored by the team of the best players or the total number of points scored over each RWC. This indicates that the dynamics of the scoring performance of Rugby Union players is influenced by hidden processes hitherto inaccessible through standard performance metrics; this suggests that players’ scoring performance is connected to ubiquitous phenomena such as anomalous diffusion.

1990年代後半におけるラグビーの均質化に関する考察：国際ラグビー連盟によるパーフェクトラグビープロダクトのルール実践の是正を巡って

Rugby union football (rugby), which originally developed in England, is a sport that has spread widely to many parts of the world through its association with similar types of football, such as rugby league football, popular mainly in Northern England and Australia. The International Rugby Board (IRB), the subject of this report, globally controlled the sport as the International Federation from 1995. At that time, rugby had attracted the attention of media conglomerates, which controlled the global media market, was part of the content of their satellite TV services, as was the case for other sports. Perfect Rugby Products was the first professional competition and media product in the rugby union world. The former dominion unions, which were members of the IRB, developed the products by receiving massive financial aid from News Corporation Ltd., one of the media conglomerates. This led to the fully-fledged commercialization and professionalization of rugby. However, this was not the only achievement of Perfect Rugby Products, as their spectacular game format came under scrutiny of the IRB, which was then reconsidering the “definition of rugby” on a global scale. The present study reappraises Perfect Rugby Products by addressing the processes of development of the IRB's strategies and policies, and explores the relationship between Perfect Rugby Products, News Corporation Ltd., and the IRB. We analyzed the minutes of the meetings of the IRB from the viewpoint of the standardization of rugby in order to highlight the intrinsic mechanism and dynamism of the IRB. This revealed that firstly, in the late 1990s, the development of the IRB Playing Charter and related policies of the IRB globally promoted the standardization of rugby and enabled stable management/control of the game, centering on the IRB. Next, in this standardization process, the IRB altered the spectacular game format of Perfect Rugby Products. This meant that the IRB, in the environment of globalization of rugby that was inseparable from commercialization, along with the intervention of News Corporation Ltd., did not relinquish power to constitute the game but also placed Perfect Rugby Products under its control. It is considered that this provides an opportunity to reconsider the relationship between media conglomerates and transnational sports constitutions, which is an issue that has not been addressed in previous studies, as typified in the concept of the “media-sport production complex” (Maguire, 1994).

A Retrospective analysis of the IRB statistics and video analysis of match play to explain the performance of four teams in the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

A retrospective analysis of performance during the Rugby Union World Cup 2003 was conducted by comparing data from the top three nations with data from South Africa (SA). Differences were observed between the four teams in three performance variables; number of penalty kicks and drop goals scored, and percentage possession. England scored more points from penalty kicks and drop goals. SA had less percentage possession than either England or New Zealand. SA’s scoring opportunities began more frequently from inside the opposition’s territory (86% of all scoring movements). Possession was most frequently lost when the movement began inside SA’s territory (55% of all movements in which possession was lost). The duration for which possession was retained was greater for movements that resulted in points (21.9 ± 14.5 s), than where possession was turned over (14.8 ± 5.2 s) (P< 0.05). Points were scored against SA 24 times, 58% in the second half and 71% of the scores against SA occurred the next play after SA had lost possession. These data suggest that superior performance in World Cup rugby is linked to possession retained, the number of points scored in the second half and the propensity to lose possession in areas of the field from which the opposition is likely to score.

Movement time as a predictor of success in the 2003 Rugby World Cup Tournament.

A video evaluation of the English, Australian, New Zealand and South African rugby performances during the 2003 Rugby World Cup was conducted to establish if movement duration could predict successful performance. The data show that over 50% of all movements lasted less than 20 seconds. There were two different profiles observed for the frequency of data in the different movement categories. South Africa had a greater percentage of movements that lasted between 0 – 20 seconds, whereas England, Australia and New Zealand had a greater % of movements that lasted longer than 80 seconds. Points were scored with 30% of the movements each team created. Differences were noted between the performances of England, Australia and New Zealand, and South Africa although they were not significant. When broken down into different categories it was observed that points were more frequently scored when the movements lasted between 60 and 80 seconds (44%). England, Australia and New Zealand scored in 57% of the movements lasting longer than 80 seconds and had a return of 2.8 points per movement that lasted longer than 80 seconds. South Africa had only 1 movement over 80 seconds and did not score from it. This study therefore suggests that the ability of teams to construct movements that lasted longer than 80 seconds was a key influence on where teams finished in the Rugby Union World Cup 2003 tournament.

High Body Mass Index is not a barrier to physical activity: Analysis of international rugby players’ anthropometric data

Recent data indicate that levels of overweight and obesity are increasing at an alarming rate throughout the world. At a population level (and commonly to assess individual health risk), the prevalence of overweight and obesity is calculated using cut-offs of the Body Mass Index (BMI) derived from height and weight. Similarly, the BMI is also used to classify individuals and to provide a notional indication of potential health risk. It is likely that epidemiologic surveys that are reliant on BMI as a measure of adiposity will overestimate the number of individuals in the overweight (and slightly obese) categories. This tendency to misclassify individuals may be more pronounced in athletic populations or groups in which the proportion of more active individuals is higher. This differential is most pronounced in sports where it is advantageous to have a high BMI (but not necessarily high fatness). To illustrate this point we calculated the BMIs of international professional rugby players from the four teams involved in the semi-finals of the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) cut-offs for BMI, approximately 65% of the players were classified as overweight and approximately 25% as obese. These findings demonstrate that a high BMI is commonplace (and a potentially desirable attribute for sport performance) in professional rugby players. An unanswered question is what proportion of the wider population, classified as overweight (or obese) according to the BMI, is misclassified according to both fatness and health risk? It is evident that being overweight should not be an obstacle to a physically active lifestyle. Similarly, a reliance on BMI alone may misclassify a number of individuals who might otherwise have been automatically considered fat and/or unfit.

Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of Scoring Opportunities by South Africa in World Cup Rugby 2003.

The scoring opportunities of the South African team (SA) during the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup were evaluated from videotape recordings (n = 5 matches) to determine the location of the field (i) where the points were scored from, (ii) where the movement that lead to the scoring opportunity started from, and (iii) the net direction across the field that the ball was moved. These data were analysed using Chi-Square tests to determine if scoring opportunities occurred from different areas of the field. The duration of SA possession of the ball before the points were scored was also determined (this included play leading up to and following a penalty, if appropriate). The data were also categorised into 1st or 2nd half scoring opportunities and analysed with a t-test. There were significant differences between the areas of the field where the points were scored from (P<0.01). The scoring opportunities resulting in points were most frequently scored inside the opposition’s 25 m area (86%) with the two wings accounting for 34% (right) and 31% (left). Scoring opportunities began more frequently from the attacking midfield area (between half-way line and opposition’s 25 m) 50%, attack 26%, defensive midfield 18% and the defence 5%. The scoring movements were more frequently initiated on the right attacking midfield area of the field (24%) compared with the left (13%) or central area (13%). The net direction of play was most frequently from the right to left direction (34%). Left to right play only accounted for 17% of the scoring opportunities however, net play in the right channel was more frequent (23%), with the rest of the play occurring in the central (9%) or left (17%) channels. SA’s mean duration of possession of the ball before scoring was longer in the 1st half (25.52 ± 6.5 s) compared to 2nd half (18.34 ± 8.8 s). In conclusion, in the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup South Africa most frequently started their scoring opportunities on the right side of the field between the halfway line and the opposition’s 25 m line, tended to move the ball in a right to left direction and required more time in possession to secure points in the 1st half compared to the 2nd half.

Pre-performance routine consistency: temporal analysis of goal kicking in the Rugby Union World Cup

This study examined the consistency of pre-performance routines in international rugby union goal kickers on kicks of varying difficulty and under different amounts of situational pressure. Concentration times and physical preparation times were calculated from video recordings of the 572 place kicks taken during the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup. In contrast to the view that performers should seek consistent pre-performance routine times, the results revealed a strong positive relationship between kick difficulty and concentration time. Analysis of the effect of situational pressure, determined by the difference in score before the kick, revealed that players tended to have longer concentration times and shorter physical preparation times when the scores were close. There were no differences between the best and worst kickers in the tournament on routine time, consistency or rhythmicity. The view that increasing the temporal consistency of a routine will result in improved performance is challenged.

Kicking Timetabling Problems into Touch

Tie schedule for the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup had to satisfy the Organising Committee, various Rugby Unions and several television companies as well as being fair to all the competing teams. Consequently producing the schedule was a complex multi-objective problem and a meta-heuristic based approach was envisaged; however an intensive analysis of the problem lead to a satisfactory schedule being produced using manual methods. This schedule was compared with solutions generated using tabu search, with the World Cup organisers preferring the manual solution. Thus some apparently complicated problems may not be as difficult as they first seem.