A Comparison of the Match Demands of International and Provincial Rugby Sevens
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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.
The authors are with the Sports Performance Research Inst New Zealand, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
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