Movement time as a predictor of success in the 2003 Rugby World Cup Tournament

A video evaluation of the English, Australian, New Zealand and South African rugby performances during the 2003 Rugby World Cup was conducted to establish if movement duration could predict successful performance. The data show that over 50% of all movements lasted less than 20 seconds. There were two different profiles observed for the frequency of data in the different movement categories. South Africa had a greater percentage of movements that lasted between 0 – 20 seconds, whereas England, Australia and New Zealand had a greater % of movements that lasted longer than 80 seconds. Points were scored with 30% of the movements each team created. Differences were noted between the performances of England, Australia and New Zealand, and South Africa although they were not significant. When broken down into different categories it was observed that points were more frequently scored when the movements lasted between 60 and 80 seconds (44%). England, Australia and New Zealand scored in 57% of the movements lasting longer than 80 seconds and had a return of 2.8 points per movement that lasted longer than 80 seconds. South Africa had only 1 movement over 80 seconds and did not score from it. This study therefore suggests that the ability of teams to construct movements that lasted longer than 80 seconds was a key influence on where teams finished in the Rugby Union World Cup 2003 tournament.