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Purpose: To determine whether a facilitated recovery via cold-water immersion (CWI) after simulated rugby sevens would influence parasympathetic reactivation and repeated-sprint (RS) performance across 6 matches in a 2-d tournament., Methods: Ten male team-sport athletes completed 6 rugby sevens match simulations over 2 d with either postmatch passive recovery (PAS) or CWI in a randomized crossover design. Parasympathetic reactivation was determined via the natural logarithm of the square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of differences between adjacent R-R intervals (ln rMSSD). RS performance was calculated as time taken (s) to complete 6 × 30-m sprints within the first half of each match., Results: There were large increases in postintervention ln rMSSD between CWI and PAS after all matches (ES 90% CL: +1.13; ±0.21). Average heart rate (HR) during the RS performance task (HRAverage RS) was impaired from baseline from match 3 onward for both conditions. However, HRAverage RS was higher with CWI than with PAS (ES 90% CL: 0.58; ±0.58). Peak HR during the RS performance task (HRPeak RS) was similarly impaired from baseline for match 3 onward during PAS and for match 4 onward with CWI. HRPeak RS was very likely higher with CWI than with PAS (ES 90% CL: +0.80; ±0.56). No effects of match or condition were observed for RS performance, although there were moderate correlations between the changes in HRAverage RS (r 90% CL: -0.33; ±0.14), HRPeak RS (r 90% CL: -0.38; ±0.13), and RS performance., Conclusion: CWI facilitated cardiac parasympathetic reactivation after a simulated rugby sevens match. The decline in average and peak HR across matches was partially attenuated by CWI. This decline was moderately correlated with a reduction in RS performance.

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of repeated isometric measurements of neck strength and endurance in a simulated rugby contact posture. Data were collected from healthy active university students (n = 20) over 3 sessions. Each session consisted of a single maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and endurance trial for extension and flexion. The endurance trials were analyzed to determine the area under the force curve (%AUC) and the time to fatigue (TTF). Reliability was calculated using the SEM and minimal detectable change (MDC). The results revealed that the MVC values for extension were nonsignificant for session (p = 0.21), whereas some session differences were seen for flexion (p = 0.01), where session 1, 115.3 N was less than session 3, 126.4 N (p = 0.03). For %AUC, flexion values (%AUC 86.0) were greater than extension (%AUC 59.4) (p = 0.02). A similar effect was observed for TTF with flexion (125.0 seconds) having significantly greater TTF than extension (86.1 seconds). For peak force, the greatest SEM and MDC were achieved for extension (15.3 and 42.3 N), while flexion produced lower values (11.3 and 31.2 N). In contrast, for the endurance trials, SEM and MDC were greater in flexion than in extension. The findings from this study indicate that the neck musculature can be reliably assessed in a simulated contact posture. For peak force, extension provided more consistent measures across time as there seems to be a learning effect for flexion. Additionally, the SEM and MDC scores provide a useful tool for future assessment of neck strength and endurance.