Neuropsychological assessment of elite level rugby players and the relationship with on-field performance

Abstract

Rugby is regarded as one of the most popular professional team sports in the world and characterized by various high-intensity activities such as sprints, accelerations from a static position, rucking, mauling, tackling and breaking through tackles. In addition to the physical demands players have to deal with, there are also psychological, emotional, social and behavioural demands which need to be addressed. Athletes have to excel in four domains in order to perform at elite levels of sport, namely the physiological, technical, emotional and cognitive levels. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between measures of cognition (memory capacity, attention and behavioural tasks, sensory-motor functioning, verbal tasks, executive functioning and emotion identification) and on-field performance [as determined by the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)] of university-level rugby players. A quantitative research method, namely a cross-sectional research design with a convenience sample, was used. A group of 25 male university-level rugby players were recruited from a South African University’s Rugby Institute squad who participated in the Varsity Cup Tournament. The group consisted of eight tight five players (numbers 1-5), five loose forwards (numbers 6-8) and twelve backline players (numbers 9-15) with an average age of 22.63, 22.80 and 21.50 years respectively. The participants’ cognitive functioning was measured using the WebNeuro Sport, a web-based assessment instrument developed by the Brain Resource Company. In order to quantify the players’ on-field performance, the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of each player were determined for each game by the full-time, qualified coders of the technical support department of The South African Rugby Union (SARU) by using the technical analysis software, Stratus. The following KPIs were included in the analysis: Attacking variables, including the total number of contributions a player provided during attacking play, carries (number of carries), passes (number of passes a player made), kicks (number of kicks during the game), ball recycler (number of times a player recycled the ball from a maul), breakdown arrivals (number of times a player is part of breakdowns) and attacking mauls (number of times a player was part of an attacking maul. Defensive variables included total number of contributions a player provided during defensive play, tackle attempts (number of attempts), missed tackles (number of tackles missed), breakdown arrivals on defence (number of times a player is part of breakdowns) and defensive mauls (number of times a player was part of a defensive maul). According to our knowledge this is the first study of its kind, which makes a comparison of our findings with existing literature virtually impossible. The analyses of the tight five forwards revealed that players’ sensory-motor ability might contribute to the number of carries the players perform during attacking play. In terms of the loose forwards the positive correlation between total contribution and emotion identification might be indicative of the important role of good pattern recognition and associated quick decision-making. In line with the results of the loose forwards, the analyses of the backs revealed medium to strong positive correlations between emotion identification and total attacking contribution, passes as well as kicks. It therefore appears that good pattern recognition ability and associated quick decision-making might be important cognitive functions for backline players as well as loose forwards to enhance their performance. Although this is the first study of its kind and the fact that most of the explanations are based on hypotheses, it might lay the foundation for further research regarding rugby players’ cognitive functioning and related on-field performance. An important implication of the present findings is that knowledge of the positive as well as the negative relationships and certain measures of cognitive functioning may be of value for improving on-field performance by means of the application of cognitive interventions programs