A comparison of the match demands of international and provincial rugby sevens

Abstract

Purpose: To compare the running demands and match activity profiles of international and provincial rugby sevens players. Participants: 84 rugby sevens players, consisting of 16 international players from 1 team and 68 provincial players from 8 teams. Methods: Global positioning system analysis was completed during international and provincial tournament matches. Video analysis was also used to quantify the individual match activities during tournament matches. Results: Trivial to moderate differences were found in the running demands of international and provincial players, with internationals covering a greater distance at very high speed (ES = 0.30) and performing a greater number of sprints (ES = 0.80). Small differences were found between the 2 levels in all but total tackles (ES = 0.07) and defensive ruck effectiveness (ES = 0.64). International matches incurred a greater overall ball-in-play time than provincial matches (proportion ratio = 1.32). Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that both physical and technical factors distinguish international and provincial rugby sevens, although overall match demands are similar.

RAS ID

20266

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

2015

Faculty

Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

Copyright

subscription content

Publisher

Human Kinetics

Comments

Ross, A., Gill, N. D., & Cronin, J. B. (2015). A Comparison of the Match Demands of International and Provincial Rugby Sevens. International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance 10, 786-790. doi: 10.1123/ijspp.2014-0213. Original article available here

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1123/ijspp.2014-0213