The temporal distribution and proportion of impacts and running within professional rugby union game play

Abstract

Objectives

This study identifies the distribution (percentage of maximum) and proportion (percentage of total occurrence across a half) of positional peak 1-min running characteristics (m·min⁻¹) and contact-based events (impact·min⁻¹) during professional rugby union game play.

Design

Within 95 rugby union (n = 160 athlete) games, players wore global positioning system (GPS) devices (n = 1422 player-game files). One-minute rolling-window averages were calculated with the maximum and mean value being recorded for each dependent variable (m·min⁻¹ and impact·min⁻¹) then standardised by the positional peak mean.

Method

The distribution of these variables accumulated in 10% increments of the peak were determined and the proportion of time spent at relative intensities for the total sample and sub-samples (position groups) were observed.

Results

The greatest distribution of game play (%) was observed at ~30–39% of the positional peak for running and 0 impacts·min⁻¹. The greatest proportion of maximum positional peak 1-min running periods occurred at the beginning of each half and declined as the half went on. Peak impact characteristics, however, were found to be more sporadic across a half.

Conclusion

These findings can be used by practitioners to alter training drills to replicate the peak intensities of game play by time, type, volume, and intensity.