To enhance understanding of recovery and preparation in rugby union, the aim of this thesis was to examine the impact of competition on key parameters and investigate factors which may influence the recovery process from competition and training. The findings of study one demonstrate that movement patterns and thus the physiological demands of match-play vary considerably between different positional groups. Additionally, study two demonstrates that the movement characteristics which determine the extent of muscle damage post-match are position specific, and that movement characteristics may be used to prospectively tailor individual recovery and manage subsequent training. Recovery patterns may also be influenced by factors not associated with match-play such as sleep, which has important physiological and psychological restorative effects. The findings of study three suggest that sleep patterns may vary considerably within a squad with many players presenting evidence of sleep disruption, particularly post-match which may be detrimental to recovery. Recovery following exercise may also be modulated by the application of post-exercise recovery strategies such as cold water immersion. However, study four demonstrates that cold water immersion may impede adaptation to strength training in rugby union players. When no recovery intervention was administered during a five week pre-season period, isometric mid-thigh pull peak force and relative peak force significantly increased by 5.4 +/- 4.7 and 5.8 +/- 5.4% respectively. However when individuals were immersed in cold water post-training there were no significant changes in strength during the training period. These findings may have great implications for strength training, particularly during periods of physical development. The findings of the thesis have furthered understanding of the characteristics of performance and identified several factors which influence recovery from training and competition. This in turn may be used to inform best practice procedures in attempt to 'optimise' preparation and recovery in rugby union.

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the complex, holistic and context-specific nature of the coaching process, research has rarely focused upon coaching practice as a comprehensive, integrated and situated endeavour. This thesis examined the coaching process of the head coach of a national women's rugby union team using data collected throughout a competitive international season. A methodological bricolage consisting of ethnographic participant observation, systematic practice observations, audio-visual recordings, semi-structured interviews and stimulated recall interviews was adopted to investigate both the broad parameters and detailed properties of the coach's work. Analysis of the data led to the development of a grounded theory of the coaching process, which was found to be constituted by the interactions of the coach, a variety of associates, and the coaching context. Numerous and interrelated personal, social and contextual factors were identified that functioned to create opportunities and challenges that the coach responded to through their practice. The findings contribute to a fuller understanding of the complexity and holism of the coaching process in top-level women's rugby union, as well as a valuable conceptual framework and methodology to guide and conduct future research in different contexts.

Que se passe-t-il au cœur de la mêlée ? Si cette question se pose au néophyte, elle fait aussi débat au sein des institutions. Il s’agit à la fois de garantir la sécurité du joueur et d’assurer les conditions d’une mêlée performante. Notre questionnement est issu de notre pratique de joueuse de première ligne. La mêlée s’est avérée à la fois source de satisfaction et de douleur, de plaisir de l’impact et de peur de la blessure… ces ressentis évoluant au fur et à mesure de l’expérience construite. Si différentes recherches étudient la mêlée, les développements scientifiques se focalisent sur des facteurs anatomiques et biomécaniques de la blessure. En écho avec des préoccupations de la Fédération Française de Rugby, nous proposons une autre approche plaçant au centre le point de vue du joueur et ses pratiques effectives en mêlée. Une étude exploratoire menée auprès de cinq experts nous a permis d’entrevoir différentes conceptions de la performance en mêlée et d’envisager, au moins dans le discours, plusieurs modalités de pratique. S’est alors posée la question de la diversité des pratiques effectives et de ce qui les organise. Nous avons donc étudié ce qui se joue en mêlée pour un joueur de première ligne. Nous nous inscrivons dans une perspective énactive qui considère la vie, selon un processus d’autopoïèse, en tant qu’auto production et auto affirmation d’une identité produisant, par ses interactions, un soi cognitif et son monde adéquat. L’humain est considéré comme un complexe de micro-identités construites au sein de contextes socioculturels. Une philosophie des normes et des valeurs s’est avérée nécessaire pour envisager la manière dont s’expriment ces micro-identités et selon laquelle elles organisent les pratiques. Ceci nous a conduite à l’hypothèse d’une sensibilité à en tant que sens structurant, c’est-à-dire l’existence d’une norme prévalente assurant une orientation d’ensemble dominant les actes et les organisant à partir d’une valeur directrice. Pour documenter le sens de l’expérience, nous avons investigué la signification incarnée à partir de matériaux d’observation et d’entretiens d’autoconfrontation et en re-situ subjectif. Dix joueurs ont volontairement participé à l’étude : un d’entre eux évoluait en Fédérale 2 (catégorie C), les autres en Espoirs, Fédérale 1, Pro D2, Top 14 ou Top 10 (catégorie A).Nous avons identifié chez les joueurs de première ligne différentes sensibilités à : sensibilité à l’impact, au gain du ballon, à l’arbitrage de la mêlée, au duel individuel ou collectif, au fait d’avancer/ne pas reculer. Ainsi, plusieurs micro-mondes de pratique ont été mis à jour, révélant différentes modalités de la performance en mêlée. Ces dernières se sont parfois avérées en tension avec les attentes de l’entraîneur pour un poste donné et avec des consignes et exigences de sécurité. Ce travail a aussi permis de mettre à jour la complexité des jeux de norme. En effet, chez tous les joueurs, les normes qui organisent leur activité au cours de la mêlée sont plurielles, voire en débat : des normes plus contingentes ont été repérées. Enfin, une même sensibilité à particulière peut être de différentes natures : vitale, de devoir social ou d’exécution. En esquissant différentes sensibilités à, nos travaux proposent une nouvelle typologie des joueurs à risques et enrichissent les perspectives de prévention des blessures en mêlée. Les joueurs ayant des facteurs de risque importants paraissent être ceux pour qui la norme prévalente revêt un enjeu de viabilité identitaire ; ils prennent alors « inconsidérément » des risques démesurés pour leur intégrité physique ou celle des partenaires et adversaires, car leur micro-monde s’organise autour d’autres préoccupations qui font que ces risques restent largement inaperçus. / What exactly takes place in a scrum? Not only will a neophyte ask this question, but it will also be debated among various institutions. Making sure the player’s security and the conditions of a performing scrum are guaranteed is at the core of the question. This enquiry has been undertaken thanks to our front row rugby player practice. Playing in scrum has been an experience of both satisfaction and suffering, pleasure of impact and fear of injury... All this has, of course, evolved as experience was gained. The different studies concerning rugby scrums mostly focus on the anatomical and biomechanical aspects of injuries whereas, echoing the French Rugby Board’s concerns, we suggest another approach centered around the player’s point of view and his actual practice of scrum. An exploratory study made with five experts has allowed us to foresee different conceptions of performance in a scrum and to view different forms of practice. Then, the question of the diversity of actual practices and what organizes them was asked. This is why we have studied what is at stake in a scrum for a front line player.In order to document the meaning of this experience, we have investigated the embodied significance from materials of observation and interviews of auto-confrontation and in re-situ subjective. Ten players have voluntarily participated in the study: one of them played in Federal 2 (category C), the others in “Hopes”, Federal 1, Pro D2, Top14 or Top 10 (category A).Among front line players we have identified different sensibilities to: the sensibility to impact, to the fact of winning the ball, to scrum refereeing, to individual or collective duel, to the fact of moving forward / not backward. Thus, different practices have been revealed, showing different forms of performance in a scrum. The latter have sometimes been questioned by some coaches for a given post and with security instructions and requirements. This work has also allowedan enhancement of the complexity of normed games. It is true that, for any player, the norms that organize his activity in the mid of a scrum are diverse, sometimes even controversial: more contingent norms have been spotted. Finally, it has been demonstrated that the same specific sensibility to can actually be of different kinds.By outlining different sensibilities to, our workbrings a new typology of high risk players and allows new perspectives concerning the prevention of scrum injuries. As a matter of fact, those players tend to take disproportionate risks “thoughtlessly”, thus putting at risk their physical integrity or their partners’ or opponents ‘just because their micro-world is organized around concerns that make those risks largely unnoticed.

The principal aim of this study was to create longitudinal profiles (1988-2002) for the games of rugby union and rugby league football in order to identify whether changes in time, offence, defence and game action variables, and positional and game performance indicators were a reflection that the two codes of rugby were 'converging'. Anecdotal evidence had suggested that due to certain administrative developments within this time frame many facets of the two games were becoming similar, thereby spawning the notion of a future single, unified game of 'rugby'. This thesis presents the first empirical and objective assessment of whether such convergence has occurred. The data for this study were extracted from 48 video-taped recordings of First Grade rugby league and International rugby union in the Northern hemisphere over the specified time frame. The matches were identifiable by Era (pre-/post-professional) and Period (1988-92, 1993-95, 1997-99 and2000-02). Key aspects of play or performance were distinguished via game models and expert opinion and were scrutinised via a series of specifically designed and validated hand notation systems. Initial analysis considered (and established) the reliability of these systems, thereafter parametric and non-parametric inferential statistical teohniques were employed to identify Era and Period effects within each Code, with the additional analyses to consider the effects of Game Result and Game Quarter Outcomes. The findings from these analyses, particulaily the observed increase in ball in play time, changes at the ruck, maul, and lineout, and alterations in defence patterns of play, have provided a strong argument that the two Codes underwent a discernable degree of convergence over the years being considered. It was concluded that the introduction of professional playing status (rugby union), the summer playing season (rugby league), and law changes were likely causes of the two games being now similar in many respects. Although additional analyses should be encouraged to corroborate the present findings, the case for the development of a single Code of rugby can now be made.

Existing research shows that increasing numbers of young men are dissatisfied with the appearance of their bodies. Research has found that men will use sport and health-related sports acts to conceal these concerns from others. Accordingly, men s body dissatisfactions are documented less frequently because the practices drawn upon to conceal them are perceived as routine forms of masculine behaviour. Rugby union is one of the most popular sports played by young men in England. Historically, the male rugby player is culturally perceived as strong, tough and unemotionally articulate. Existing research draws attention to health issues, such as performance stress and injury that arise through participation in this sport. Research also shows that rugby union players are likely to experience concerns about gaining weight, yet these are disguised within the requirements of training for the sport. Although, there are studies that examine the constitution of masculinities, the experience of pain and injury and career transitions among rugby union players there are no studies, as yet, that examine how rugby union men experience body concerns and manage these experiences through their sport. The research discussed in this thesis examines how a group of rugby union men (25) aged 18-25, of varied racial identity, ethnic and social backgrounds, participating in an elite university rugby union 1st XV team, experience concerns about the appearance and performance of their bodies and the ways in which such concerns develop. It also examines if and how these men used the sport and health-related sports acts, to overcome their concerns and conceal them from others. A theoretical framework, which draws on the concepts of the three theorists: Connell (1995, 2008) Goffman (1959; 1961; 1979) and Bourdieu (1978; 1979; 1984), is developed. As part of this, a new concept has been created from Goffman s dramaturgical approach: that of the intimate dimension. In this dimension intimate relationships occur. It is located away from the front region, (the public), and the back region (semi-public spaces) where less formal relationships occur. It includes the research interview, with a woman researcher, and some other women such as girlfriends, sisters or female friends and also one or two other rugby men with whom the rugby men demonstrated a close bond. Within this dimension the rugby men are more forthcoming about the personal elements of their rugby lives. The theoretical framework is used to examine these men s concerns, how they are developed, experienced and managed. Recognising that cultural assumptions of a tough and less expressive masculinity assigned to this sport can potentially make it difficult for men to express these concerns, a combination of visual research methods and ethnography are used to examine these men s body concerns and their management. This includes collaborative collection of photography and photo-elicitation interviews. The research shows that embodied experiences of discomfort, associated with pain, injury, concerns about height, being overweight or out of shape, and social experiences of exclusion led to the development of the rugby men s body concerns. For these rugby men, their rugby masculinities are influential to the management and concealment of their body concerns. They suppress and conceal their body concerns in the front and back regions of the sport and reveal them in more intimate dimensions. The rugby men s relationships with each other, in the back regions of the sport, were the most influential to this identity, but more importantly, to the management and reinforcement of these concerns. This thesis contributes to filling the gap in existing academic research by examining body concerns and its management amongst rugby union men. It also extends existing research that has found men conceal their body concerns in sport, because it looks at how these men manage these concerns differently in different regions of their sport. Furthermore, a theoretical framework that combines interactionism and phenomenology is used to study sociologically men s body concerns in these different contexts. The combination of visual methods and ethnography goes beyond some of the existing methods used in clinical and sociological research that have examined men's body concerns. They can be used to enhance understanding of clinical forms of body concern and other emotional concerns rugby union men and other sportsmen, of all ages, have about performance, pain and injury. The incorporation of visual methods is potentially widely applicable because they have increasing precedence in sportsmen s lives to analyse performance and to represent them.

L'objectif général de ce projet était d'analyser l'activité lors de compétitions de niveau international en rugby à XV et d'explorer l'évolution du niveau d'activité au cours du match pour quantifier la fatigue. Dans une première étude il a été démontré que le niveau d'activité ne variait pas de façon significative au cours du match si l'on quantifiait l'activité des joueurs par l'analyse de la vitesse et du rapport entre la durée d'activité et la durée de la récupération. Par contre, on observe une diminution significative de l'accélération moyenne sur la deuxième mi-temps, cette diminution étant plus particulièrement marquée pour le groupe constitué des troisièmes lignes et des talonneurs. Dans une deuxième étude, nous avons proposé d'étudier la fatigue lors de 12 répétitions d'exercice statique simulant la poussée en mêlée. Les résultats démontrent une diminution significative de la force produite de 11,7 % ce qui est relativement faible si l'on considère le protocole qui consistait à répéter 12 fois 5 s de poussée maximale entrecoupées de périodes de récupération de 15 s. Le faible coût métabolique de la contraction isométrique en comparaison de la contraction concentrique pourrait expliquer la diminution relativement faible de la force produite. L'ensemble de ces résultats suggère que l'enchaînement des séquences de jeu statiques et dynamiques et des périodes de récupération lors d'une compétition internationale permet de maintenir le niveau global d'activité / The overall objective of this project was to analyze the activity at international level competitions in rugby union and to explore the evolution of the level of activity during the match to quantify fatigue. In the first study it was demonstrated that the level of activity did not vary significantly during the match if velocity and the ratio between duration of activity and of recovery periods were analyzed. A significant decrease in the average acceleration in the second half was evidenced; this decrease was particularly marked for the group constituted by back rows and hookers. In a second study, we proposed to study fatigue during static exercise simulating the scrum. The results show a significant decrease in the force produced by 11.7 %, which is relatively low considering that the protocol consisted in 12 time 5 s of maximum effort interspersed with recovery periods of 15 s. The low metabolic cost of isometric contraction compared to concentric contraction could explain the relatively small decrease of the force produced. Taken together, these results suggest that the players’ combinations of action, static or dynamic, and recovery times were optimal for preventing large decrease in physical performance