Movement demands and running intensities of semi-professional rugby league players in a 9’s tournament

Abstract

The objective of the study was to describe the movement demands and running intensities of semi-professional rugby league players during a rugby league 9’s (RL9’s) tournament. Six semi-professional rugby league players competed in a RL9’s tournament over a two-day period comprising of six games. Movement demands and running intensities were recorded using Global Positioning System (GPS) devices providing data on distance and speeds. Data is presented as mean (95% Confidence Intervals) with changes (≥ 75%) likely to exceed the smallest worthwhile change (0.2) considered practically important. Outside backs performed significantly (p 2.0) decreases in performance variables were observed over the two days. The biggest magnitude of change over the two days was seen with very large decreases in relative HSR (- 2.10) and sprint (- 2.14) distance. Between playing groups, the outside backs had the biggest decrease in running intensity with a very large (- 2.32) significant (p < 0.05) decrease in VHSR on day 2 (3.3 m∙min-1 [2.5 – 4.1]) compared to day 1 (4.9 m∙min-1 [4.4 – 5.4]). Running intensities are de-creased during an intensified RL9’s tournament in semi-professional rugby league players. The observed decreases in running performances between playing groups are in agreement with previous research and may support the use of individualized player monitoring and recovery management during a RL9’s tournament-style competition

    Similar works