The temporal distribution and occurrence of impacts and movement relative to peak periods in men's rugby union

Objectives: This study identifies the distribution (as a percentage of the positional peak) and occurrence (within a half) of 1-min movement characteristics (m.min(-1)) and contact-based events (impact.min(-1)) during professional rugby union game play. Design: Within 95 rugby union games, players wore global positioning system (GPS) devices (n=1422 player-game files, 160 athletes). One-minute rolling-window averages were calculated with the maximum and mean value being recorded for each dependent variable; relative distance (m.min(-1)) and impacts (impact.min(-1)), then standardised by the positional peak mean. Methods: The distribution of these variables accumulated in 10% increments of the peak were determined as was their occurrence throughout a playing half for each positional group. Results: The greatest distribution of game play (%) was observed at similar to 30-39% of the positional peak for movement and with no impacts. The greatest occurrence of maximum positional peak 1-min movement periods occurred at the beginning of each half and declined as the half went on. Peak impact characteristics, however, were found to be more sporadic across a half. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the distribution of positional peak 1-min movement (80-100%+) and peak impacts (4+) were <5% of overall game play, and observed <2% of total occurrences. This highlights that practitioners should alter training drills by time, volume, and intensity in order to replicate the peak intensities of game play. (C) 2022 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.