Sport forms an integral part of our everyday living and .has a big influence on the lives of young developing children. Participation in sport has become part of early childhood. Therefore it is of utmost importance that talent identification must start at a very early age. Due to a lack of scientific research in rugby, progress according to talent identification, has developed slightly. Very few scientific methods of identification among young rugby players could be found in literature. The aim of this study is to identify specific rugby skills, physical, motor, anthropometric and psychological variables that could be used to determine talent for 16 year-old adolescence. A test· battery of 24 rugby skills, physical and motor abilities and 14 anthropometrical tests were administered. A sport psychological performance inventory was also conducted. The top three rugby teams in the under sixteen league in the Northwest Province were used in the test as well as 41 non-rugby players. The results of these three teams were used as a criteria for rugby talent among sixteen year-old boys. In order to find the best predictors of talent, stepwise discriminant analyses (SAS Discrim procedure) were conducted on the data to find the subset of best "discriminators" among all predictors which indicated· variables that are able to identify talent at this age. Results, indicated that predictions between talented and less talented rugby players were possible and that these predictions can be useful to coaches to determine talented and less talented rugby players at sixteen years of age. / Thesis (MEd (Voorligting))--PU vir CHO, 1997

Sport forms an integral part of our everyday living and .has a big influence on the lives of young developing children. Participation in sport has become part of early childhood. Therefore it is of utmost importance that talent identification must start at a very early age. Due to a lack of scientific research in rugby, progress according to talent identification, has developed slightly. Very few scientific methods of identification among young rugby players could be found in literature. The aim of this study is to identify specific rugby skills, physical, motor, anthropometric and psychological variables that could be used to determine talent for 16 year-old adolescence. A test· battery of 24 rugby skills, physical and motor abilities and 14 anthropometrical tests were administered. A sport psychological performance inventory was also conducted. The top three rugby teams in the under sixteen league in the Northwest Province were used in the test as well as 41 non-rugby players. The results of these three teams were used as a criteria for rugby talent among sixteen year-old boys. In order to find the best predictors of talent, stepwise discriminant analyses (SAS Discrim procedure) were conducted on the data to find the subset of best "discriminators" among all predictors which indicated· variables that are able to identify talent at this age. Results, indicated that predictions between talented and less talented rugby players were possible and that these predictions can be useful to coaches to determine talented and less talented rugby players at sixteen years of age. / Thesis (MEd (Voorligting))--PU vir CHO, 1997