Original research
Performance indicators during international rugby union matches are influenced by a combination of physiological and contextual variables

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2019.10.011Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

Research has linked physiological (e.g., hormonal, affective, fatigue) outcomes to performance indicators in rugby competition, but no work has integrated and contextualised these factors within a test-match environment. We addressed this gap by monitoring 29 athletes from a training squad across eight international rugby matches.

Design

Longitudinal observational study.

Methods

Pre-match (8–9 am) measures of salivary testosterone and cortisol concentrations, sleep duration, pulse rate, muscle soreness, stress, mood, and motivation were taken. Contextual factors were playing time, internal training load (ITL), test-match experience, opponent ranking, and crowd size. Performance was indexed by coach and player ratings of performance (CRP, PRP) and quantitative metrics; offloads, turnovers, runs with ball in hand (RWB), tackles, passes, and defenders beaten (DFB).

Results

Morning cortisol, sleep and mood were positively related to CRP and PRP (standardised coefficient estimates from 0.17 to 0.22). Cortisol, sleep, stress, mood and motivation were associated with one (or more) of turnovers, RWB, tackles, passes and DFB (incidence rate ratio [IRR] from 0.74 to 1.40). Playing time was positively related to all quantitative performance indicators (IRR from 1.01 to 1.04) with ITL, opponent ranking, and crowd size predicting selected outputs (IRR from 0.89 to 1.15). The explanatory models varied (conditional R2 = 0.15–0.83) but were generally stronger with both physiological and contextual inputs.

Conclusions

Multiple physiological and contextual factors appear to contribute to player performance in international rugby competition. Measurement of these factors may guide training and management practices, a potential practical consequence but also advancing understanding from marker to causal link.

Section snippets

Practical implications

  • A link between sleep duration and several performance indicators in rugby union competition was verified, thereby highlighting the need to quantify and manage individual pre-competition sleeping habits in an elite rugby environment.

  • Stress, mood and motivational factors were also related to different indicators of match performance, which underscores a strong behavioural contribution and the potential for prescribing emotion-specific regulation strategies after waking and before competition.

  • The

Methods

A training squad of male rugby players (n = 40) were initially recruited. No pre-screening was necessary, as this cohort completed regular medical and health assessments. The study inclusion criteria were participation in at least two (from 8) international rugby matches and game time of at least 10 min per match.12 The final cohort (n = 29) comprised of 13 backs and 16 forwards with a respective mean (±SD) age of 28.8 ± 2.8 and 27.8 ± 3.4 years, height of 1.84 ± 0.06 and 1.91 ± 0.10 m, mass of 91.5 ± 9.0 and

Results

Only variables identified from the model-fitting procedures are presented in Fig. 1, Fig. 2. Regarding the performance ratings, morning cortisol concentration and mood state were positively related to CRP (Fig. 1A), whilst sleep duration was positively associated with PRP (Fig. 1B). The marginal R2 was weak for CRP (0.07) and PRP (0.03), but model fit improved slightly for these respective outcomes (0.19 and 0.15) based on the conditional R2.

Playing time was positively related to offloads,

Discussion

This study is the first to examine the influence of physiological and contextual variables on athlete performance during international rugby union matches. Most physiological variables were related to one or more performance indicators. Contextual variables affecting performance included; playing time, ITL, opponent, and crowd size. In general, combining both factors improved model fit for predicting the quantitative performance outputs.

Of the physiological measures, sleep was the most

Conclusion

This study identified multiple contextual and physiological factors affecting athlete performance during international rugby union matches. When integrated, these factors explained a substantial portion of different performance indicators that arguably underpin, or reflect, match-play success. Thus, the measurement of these factors may guide training and management practices to ensure a higher level, and more consistent, performance in this competitive setting.

Acknowledgements

We thank the athletes and coaching staff for their contribution to this study. This project received funding support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and UK Sports Council, as part of the ESPRIT programme (EP/H009744/1), with further in-kind and financial support from the Scottish Rugby Union.

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