IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rpanxx/v14y2014i1p111-122.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patterns of play associated with success in international rugby sevens

Author

Listed:
  • G. Dean Higham
  • G. Will Hopkins
  • B. David Pyne
  • M. Judith Anson

Abstract

Understanding the relationships between annual mean performance indicators and team ranking in the IRB Sevens World Series should inform long-term tactical approaches to competition. In this study we characterised these relationships using official data for each of the 12 core teams during the men’s IRB Sevens World Series between 2008/2009 and 2011/2012. Mean values, typical within-team variability and typical between-team differences were derived from the four annual World Series mean values for 23 performance indicators. Linear mixed modelling was employed to quantify the effect of an increase in performance indicator values (from typically low to typically high) on logarithmically-transformed series ranking within and between teams. Ten indicators had clear substantial between-team effects (2- to 3-fold differences) on team ranking, but only five had clear substantial within-team effects (∼1.5-fold changes). Tries scored and tries conceded had the strongest effects on ranking. Tactics that improved team ranking were based on increasing ball retention in line-outs and the breakdown, turning over possession more frequently in opposition rucks, and pressuring the opposition in their territory by kicking fewer short restarts. These findings confirm the intuitive importance of some common performance indicators and provide valuable novel insights for tactical planning.

Suggested Citation

  • G. Dean Higham & G. Will Hopkins & B. David Pyne & M. Judith Anson, 2014. "Patterns of play associated with success in international rugby sevens," International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 111-122, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rpanxx:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:111-122
    DOI: 10.1080/24748668.2014.11868707
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/24748668.2014.11868707
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/24748668.2014.11868707?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nimai Parmar & Nic James & Mike Hughes & Huw Jones & Gary Hearne, 2017. "Team performance indicators that predict match outcome and points difference in professional rugby league," International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(6), pages 1044-1056, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rpanxx:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:111-122. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPAN20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.