FIELD TESTING TO PREDICT PERFORMANCE IN RUGBY UNION PLAYERS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships between various field tests for leg power, sprinting speed and agility in a group of rugby union players. A group of 26 semi professional rugby union players each completed a test protocol consisting of a unilateral horizontal triple jump, 10 and 30M linear speed sprint tests, a change of direction test and a reactive agility speed test. Simple correlation analysis revealed multiple strong relationships between measured variables, most notably between linear speed and reactive agility speed (r=0.72-0.83). Multiple regression analysis indicated that linear speed and change of direction speed could predict 81% of the variance in reactive agility speed.