Analysis of the general match profile of international rugby union between 2007 and 2013

Wilbur Kraak, Frederik Coetzee and Ranel Venter

International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 2017, vol. 17, issue 3, 303-318

Abstract: Law amendments are fundamental to the development of rugby and are introduced for a variety of reasons. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the general match profile of international rugby between 2007 and 2013 in order to determine the effect of law changes. The researchers made use of mixed method methodology approach for this study. For the quantitative approach, a total of 248 matches were recorded and analyzed using the Fairplay video analysis software package. For the qualitative approach, the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with expert coaches, specialist coaches, players and referees and referee coaches. The results revealed a practical significant decrease in the number of scrums (d = 1.03) line-outs (d = .86), rucks (d = .86), mauls (d = .62) and kicks (d = .46). An increase in the number of passes (d = .43), ball carries (d = 1.22) tackles attempted (d = .65) and penalty kicks (d = .98) between 2007 and 2013 was observed. The interviews revealed that under the current laws, there is an imbalance between attack and defence. The general match profile of international rugby has moved to a game with a decrease in the number of set pieces and kicks to an increase in the number of ball carries and tackles.

Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/24748668.2017.1336689 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rpanxx:v:17:y:2017:i:3:p:303-318

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RPAN20

DOI: 10.1080/24748668.2017.1336689

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport is currently edited by Peter O'Donoghue

More articles in International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().