The change in external match loads and characteristics for a newly promoted European super league rugby league team over a three season period

Elite international female rugby union physical match demands: A five-year longitudinal analysis by position and opposition quality

“…This may account for the observed pattern, assuming professional status facilitated developments in physical fitness and skill of players. 12,25 The current data support this notion, as average speed during MIP was greater against top 5 opposition in 2017 compared to all other years. However, when playing bottom 5 opposition, MIP m/min was only higher in 2017 compared to 2015, suggesting that the match demands against top 5 teams increased in 2017.…”

“…Longitudinal increases in physical match characteristics, such as average speed, high-speed running and collision frequency have also been reported in male rugby league. 12 Thus, the current literature provides limited insight into the imposed demands on International female players during matches and lacks understanding of contextual factors, which has been raised as a current concern in female sport. 6,11 Based on the above reasoning, the primary aim of the current study was, therefore, to conduct the first extensive, longitudinal analysis of physical match characteristics among elite international female rugby union players.…”

Longitudinal changes in Super League match locomotor and event characteristics: A league-wide investigation over three seasons in rugby league

“…Gabbett and Hulin [ 15 ] reported that the number of tackles increased by 5% (ES = 0.94) from 2004 (297 ± 16) to 2014 (313 ± 12), suggesting that NRL matches gradually became more defence orientated. From seasons 2012 to 2014, Evans et al [ 17 ] reported an increased number of collisions within a newly promoted SL franchise however their study was not without limitation (e.g., data was collected from a single team containing a relatively small sample size).…”

“…In line with previous research methodology, only players appearing in all seasons and sub-seasons were included in the study [ 17 ]. This resulted in a dataset of 124 unique male professional rugby league players that contained 4787 observations (season 2018 n = 1775, season 2019 n = 1812, season 2020 a n = 485 and season 2020 b n = 715).…”

“…The lack of match events being reported alongside locomotor variables is common within rugby league [ 14 – 16 ]. This is problematic as analysis of locomotor variables alone presents a one-dimensional view of the sport that also involves collision based activity [ 17 ]. Previous longitudinal analyses of match events within rugby league competition have provided insight into evolutionary changes of both offensive and defensive involvements.…”