WORLD CUP STATISTICS SIZE MATTERS:RUGBY ANALYSTS' claims that the extra height of the Welsh backs has been a significant factor in their team's recent success have received scientific backing in research published today.
Doctors from a French sports institute – Institut de Recherche BioMedicale et d’Epidemiologie du Sport (IRMES) – analysed data on the height, weight and experience of all players who took part in the Rugby World Cup from 1987 to 2007.
They found that backs in teams reaching the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals were significantly taller than backs in less successful teams. And forwards and backs on high-performing teams were, on average, 2kg heavier than their less successful counterparts.
During the 20-year study period, 2,692 players (1,457 forwards and 1,235 backs) took part in Rugby World Cup series. Of these, 1,044 forwards and 866 backs were “rookies” – players who had not competed at World Cup level before.
The data showed that weight progressively increased for forwards and backs, while height progressively increased for backs between each World Cup series.
Professor Jean-François Toussaint and his colleagues also found that winning teams had a greater amount of collective experience among forwards compared with other teams.
In addition, the percentage of collective experience among forwards increased steadily from 33 per cent in teams reaching the quarter-finals to 40 per cent for the team winning a World Cup.
Previous research has shown an increase in the body size of players since the advent of professionalism in rugby. The incidence of rucks in Five and Six Nations championships increased from 62.4 events/game in 1988 to 134.4 in 2002.
Experts have suggested that the development of modern rugby union has resulted in an increase in high-intensity activity and
has become more physically demanding due to increases in total duration and in speed of play. These factors help explain why increased mass and height are desirable characteristics in current players.
Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine the authors say: “Even though other skills such as dexterity, technical address, tactical and psychological qualities may be equally important, a criterion as simple as body mass remains a major parameter associated with success in the final of the World Cup.”
They note rugby union generates many phases of contact – tackling, ruck, maul and scrum – which necessitate various physical demands requiring players to participate in intensive efforts interspersed with some periods of lower intensity.
They equate the success of teams with taller backs with having an advantage “in receptions under kicks and protection in isolated rucks while waiting for the forwards’ support”.
And explaining why the collective experience of forwards is a factor in a team’s success, they say: “The art of working together, sharing the action either on offence or defence is the essence of rugby. The collective investment and shared effort in all forwards’ actions is crucial, whether in rucks to keep the ball, synchronisation during lineout, maul for placement, collective push and orientation in scrums.
“Collectively adapting to adverse scrums, providing a common effort, direct scrum pressure, meeting together in a difficult situation requires a shared knowledge and combined action.”
They conclude: “Although performance in rugby is complex
and multi-factorial, simple factors such as mass and height are discriminatory in the armament race. In fact, teams with heavier forwards and taller backs perform better than others.”
