Thesis (MHSc--Health Science) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (123 leaves ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 613.711 MAR)

This thesis presents novel findings relating to the position-specific locomotive and performance-related characteristics of elite (club) level rugby union players in England using data gathered via global positioning systems and time-motion analysis over three seasons (2010 – 2013). In terms of sample size, this investigation represents one of the largest conducted and therefore provides information that is more representative than any published thus far. Moreover, the findings reported in the first study (of this thesis) directly challenge the practice adopted previously by researchers in this field of not considering the running capabilities of individual players when calculating their locomotive activities. The consequence of this is that for certain measures (involving speed zones), the values reported herein are a more appropriate reflection of elite players’ movement patterns than has been previously reported. For example, it emerged that had previous approaches been used, the average distances covered by players in a match would have been either under- or over-estimated by up to ~ 80% in high intensity running (HIR), and 86% in sprinting. In adopting subsequently the use of speed categories defined in relative terms, position-related differences were observed in locomotion. Namely, as a group, the backs covered the greatest distances, with the scrum half position covering the most (6,542 m) and the tighthead prop the least (4,326 m). The outside backs were found to “sprint” the most, albeit up to ten times less than previously reported. Similarly, position-specific performance behaviours were identified, with the forwards participating in ~ 40% more static exertions than the backs, the second row involved in the most rucks (~ 34% of team total) and the back row the most tackles (12 per match). Among the backs, different demands prevailed; the scrum half executed most passes (over 50% of team total), whereas the inside backs engaged in most tackles (8 per match) and the outside backs carried the ball the most (7 times per match). When broken down into 5-minute periods of play, notable changes in demands were evident. For instance, reductions in total distances (~ 7%), and distances at HIR (~ 16%) occurred in 5 the second half compared to the first, implying that the onset of fatigue and/or the employment of pacing strategies. Moreover, reductions in HIR following the most intense periods of play were seen (when compared to the average) for the inside (~ 23%) and outside backs (~ 20%), as was the number of static exertions for the front row (~ 21%), back row (~ 24%) and outside backs (~ 45%), suggesting the occurrence of ‘transient fatigue’ during a match. Collectively the current research provides a comprehensive overview of key physical demands of English Premiership rugby union. Not only does it provide ‘typical’ position-related data, but also provides some insight into the most intense scenarios for elements of locomotive movement and static exertions, which together could assist practitioners/coaches in devising individualised training programmes to prepare players optimally for competition.

M.Comm. / Suid-Afrika was vir baie jare geisoleer van internasionale sportdeelname. Gevolglik het sport en sportorganisasies in Suid-Afrika agter geraak vergeleke met die res van die sportwereld. Hierdie tendens is egter nie uniek betreffende deelname op die veld nie, maar ook van die veld of by die bestuur van sport. Stephen Aris skryf dat sport in die laaste dekade 'n hoogs kommersiele besigheid geword het (1990. p.ix). Sport het ook deel geword van die massavermaaklikheidsbedryf. Die fokus van sportorganisasies ten opsigte van hul produkkonsep het begin verander sedert die besef dat hulle in die vermaaklikheidsbedryf is (Ebissch, 1984. p.32). Ook Sleight (1989. p.14) bevestig dat sport in 'n groot kommersiele bedryf ontwikkel het. Naas Botha (Rapport, 1995. p.25), oudrugbyspeler en gewese bemarkingsbestuurder van die eertydse Noord-Transvaalse Rugby Unie se ook: "Rugby is nie meer 'n spel nie, dis 'n besigheid". Rugby is nou 'n professionele sport en meer druk word op rugbyunies geplaas om hul eie fondse to genereer. "In die verlede is rugby as 'n amateurspel deur amateurs bestuur. Nou is dit 'n beroepspel en dit moet deur professionele bestuurders bestuur word" (Botha, 1996. p.27). Soos reeds genoem, word sport toenemend 'n besigheid en word die persepsie dat dit net 'n rekreasieaktiwiteit is, al meer op die agtergrond geplaas. In die VSA het sport as 'n besigheid so geweldig toegeneem dat dit 'n omset van 63,1 biljoen dollar in 1990 gehad het. Dit het tot gevolg dat dit toe reeds een van die vyf en twintig grootste industries in die VSA was (Comte & Stogel in Parkhouse, 1991. p.3 - 4).

Women's Rugby Union has been through a period of transition, from the introduction of professional contracts, to the expansion of international 15-a-side and sevens competitions. Despite increased popularity and growth, little published literature has investigated the specific epidemiology and risk factors for injuries in women's rugby union. This research was undertaken to investigate the injury risk to elite female players in both the 15-a-side and sevens games. Chapter 4 presents an epidemiological study of match injuries in elite club level women's rugby union. The overall match injury incidence rate was 43 per 1000 player hours with a mean injury severity of 36 days. This incident rate is low compared to that of the male game. This suggests that sex specific research is preferable to accurately guide future practices and interventions. Chapter 5 investigates the epidemiology if injuries across 2 seasons, in an International women's squad. With an injury incidence rate of 128 per 1000 player-hours the results illustrate a similar incidence rate of injuries to those observed in men's International competitions but a significantly higher incidence rate when compared to women's club level. The impact of injury and illness on a squad's player availability is an important consideration both for the players' own performance and for the squad's performance. Chapter 6 investigates how environmental factors (e.g. short preparation period, weekly training load and the magnitude of the change in training load) contributed to the number of injuries sustained by an International squad in an intense period of training, prior to a World Cup tournament. Similarly, in Chapter 7, injuries sustained by a World Cup sevens training squad were monitored, across an intense period of training and competition. The high injury incidence rate of 187 per 1000 player-hours highlights the difference in injury risk between women and men, with environmental factors likely to have been a contributory factor. A sport still in transition, continued sex specific research is crucial to ensure the introduction of appropriate injury prevention strategies in women's rugby Union.

Over 7 million participants play rugby union throughout over 120 countries. Despite this global status, very little is known about the longer-term health outcomes of players, or how health and health-related quality of life are influenced by participation in rugby union. The aim of this thesis was to design and undertake an epidemiological study to assess overall health, the presence of morbidity, and development of osteoarthritis within former elite rugby players. In addition to establishing a study, and assessing health and morbidity, secondary aims were to compare the prevalence of morbidity in this population with age-matched representative population-based survey participants, and to examine risk factors associated with the development of osteoarthritis in this population. A cross-sectional questionnaire study was designed to assess physician-diagnosed morbidity, playing exposure, injury history and current health status. Former rugby players for Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and members of the England Rugby Internationals Club, were invited to participate in this study. Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Health Survey for England (HSE) were used as population-based representative comparator groups. These four studies examine the feasibility of involving rugby players in sport-related healthcare research, the prevalence of morbidity and health-related quality of life relative to the general population, the prevalence and risk factors for osteoarthritis-related outcomes, and finally develop a prediction model of end-stage hip failure in this population. Involving players throughout the research cycle as experts of their own experience was seen to influence the research process and questionnaire development, and ensured this process was grounded in players' beliefs and experiences. In terms of physician-diagnosed morbidity, former players were seen to demonstrate less diabetes than ELSA participants, but more osteoporosis, anxiety, osteoarthritis (OA) and joint replacement. Risk factors for osteoarthritis-related outcomes were seen to vary between the knee, hip and shoulder, and between the definitions of osteoarthritis used (NHANES pain, physician-diagnosed OA or joint replacement). Joint-specific injury was most highly associated with osteoarthritis across all joints and definitions used. The prediction model for hip replacement was strong (AUC 0.88), despite the relatively small development dataset, and again emphasised injury, in addition to Slipped Upper Femoral Epiphysis, age, family history, and playing in the second row, as predictive of hip replacement. This was not externally validated, however internal validation was undertaken. This work has not only established health outcomes in this population, and developed the methodology and survey tools to replicate this work in other cohorts, but also assesses risk factors and strongly predicts poor OA outcome in this population. This work presents potential intervention opportunities for the sport to begin to address the now quantified health deficits; and also presents benefits of elite contact sports participation. These findings should support efforts to ensure healthy participation and adequate proactive management of health at the elite level, for all players.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2004. / Includes bibliography.

The contacts and collisions that are inherent to elite Rugby Union, alongside changes to players’ physical characteristics and match activities, have raised concerns regarding the level of injury burden associated with the professional game. This programme of research was therefore undertaken to investigate injury risk in this setting. The first study of this thesis (Chapter 3) presents a meta-analytic review of injury data relating to senior men’s professional Rugby Union, which shows an overall match incidence rate of 81 per 1000 player hours; this value is high in comparison with other popular team sports. In Chapter 4, the importance of injuries in the context of performance is demonstrated by showing a substantial negative association exists between injury burden and team success measures. Chapter 5 investigates subsequent injury patterns in this population and identifies injury diagnoses with a high risk of early recurrence, whilst also demonstrating that subsequent injuries are not more severe than their associated index injury. Playing professional Rugby Union on an artificial playing surface does not influence overall acute injury risk in comparison with natural grass surfaces (Chapter 6). Chapters 7 and 8 identify intrinsic risk factors for injury (previous injury, match and training loads) for the first time in this setting, and may be used to inform policies on these pertinent issues. Finally, predictive modelling techniques show some potential for predicting the occurrence and severity of injuries, but require further refinement before they can be implemented within elite Rugby Union teams. Overall, this programme of work highlights the importance of injury prevention for all professional Rugby Union stakeholders, addresses the need to use appropriate statistical techniques to account for the dynamic and clustered nature of sport injury data, and demonstrates approaches through which the injury burden associated with elite Rugby Union may be reduced.

English men's community rugby boasts the largest adult rugby playing population in the world. While regular participation in rugby has been linked to clinical health benefits there is an inherent risk of injury associated with rugby participation due to its collision based nature. This programme of research was conducted to identify means to reduce the injury risk in the context of men's community rugby. In Chapter 3, the Functional Movement Screen is used to assess the movement competency of men's community rugby players. Injury match exposure data was recorded for each player, and analysed to determine associations between players' movement competency and injury outcomes. Players that displayed both of pain and asymmetry on screening were associated with an incidence of overall injury at 22.0 injuries/1000 player match-hours. Players that scored 16 or more had an incidence of overall injury at 12.4 injuries/1000 player match-hours. Chapter 4 details the multi-stage process used to develop the injury prevention exercise programme specific to men's community rugby. Chapter 5 investigated barriers and facilitators to programme implementation in a sample of men's community rugby clubs. Results informed the refinement of the intervention exercise programme and detailed means to maximise successful delivery of the programme to clubs. Chapter 6 was a cluster randomised controlled trial of the final injury prevention exercise programme. Clear beneficial effects following implementation included a 40% reduction in targeted lower-limb injury and a 60% reduction in concussion compared to the control group. The injury burden for intervention clubs with higher compliance was reduced 50% compared to intervention clubs with lower compliance. Functional Movement Screening™ may identify men's community rugby players at higher risk of match injury. A targeted movement control exercise programme can provide efficacious means to reduce injury that is practicable within the men's community rugby environment.

Sport psychological skills play an important role in sport performance. Evidence further suggests that the psychological skill levels may be influenced by the particular playing position. One hundred and eighty u/19 rugby players from the PUK Rugby Institute (average age: 18.79 +- 0.28 years) were tested during the 2003-2005 rugby seasons by means of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2), Psychological Skills Inventory (PSI), Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28 (ACSI-28), as well as a questionnaire dealing with psychosocial factors influencing participation and performance in rugby. Players from the 2004 and 2005 seasons (n=120) were first divided into two groups (top- and lower ranked players) of 60 players each. Effect size results (practical significance) revealed moderately significant differences between the two groups, with the top ranked players outscoring their lower ranked counterparts in self-confidence, general coping resources, coping with adversity, average psychological skills score, as well as the effect of team members/team spirit, coaches and financial aspects on participation and performance. These results confirm that sport psychological skill levels and related psychosocial factors can distinguish between rugby union players of different participation levels. Secondly, the total subject group (n=180) was divided into seven positional groups (props, hookers, locks, loose trio, half-backs, centres and back three). These groups were compared by means of effect sizes (practical significance) for each of seven sport psychological skills as measured with the PSI. Moderate (46) and large (20) practically significant differences were reported for the 147 inter-positional comparisons. The results show that the half-backs and hookers consistently outperformed the other three positional groups, while the props, locks and back three often showed the lowest skill levels. While these results are discussed in reference to practical implications for future position specific sport psychological skills training sessions, they clearly show that sport psychological skill levels differ from one position to another. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

The purpose of this study was to find whether cross training could improve male adolescent rugby skills. Three major sports (soccer, basketball and wrestling) were selected to form the base of the cross training intervention program. Pre- and post-tests were performed with the entire rugby squad (24 participants) prior to and at the conclusion of the intervention program. After pre-testing, the participants were grouped into either the intervention (12) or the control group (12). Supervised cross training sessions were performed twice a week for 10 weeks as well as traditional rugby training twice a week for 10 weeks with the intervention group. The control group performed supervised conventional rugby training twice a week for 10 weeks. All participants (24) played in a rugby match once a week during the 10 week period of the study.