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Abstract Background Rugby is increasingly gaining popularity among school-aged male junior players in countries hardly known for dominating international rugby, such as Zimbabwe. Given rugby combativeness, participating adolescents should possess qualities or skills commensurate with the physical demands of the sport for effective participation. This study investigated the independent and interactive effects of age category and playing standard on anthropometric, physiological characteristics and rugby-specific game skills among Zimbabwean athletes. Methods Two hundred and eight elite, sub-elite and non-rugby players competing at Under 16 and Under 19 age categories were assessed using the School Clinical Rugby Measure (SCRuM) test battery. Participants underwent height, sitting height, mass, skinfolds, speed, agility, upper-and-lower muscular strength and power, prolonged high-intensity intermittent running ability, tackling, passing and catching assessments in a cross-sectional experimental design. Results Age categories had significant main effect on all SCRuM test items except sum of seven skinfolds (p = 0.45, η2p = 0.003). Playing standard had significant main effects for all variables except height (p = 0.40, η2p = 0.01) and sum of seven skinfolds (p = 0.11, η2p = 0.02). Specifically, upper-and-lower muscular strength and power, prolonged high-intensity intermittent running ability, tackling, passing and catching improved with increasing playing standards. However, two-way analysis of variance only demonstrated significant interactions between the effects of age category and playing standards for vertical jump height (VJ) test, 2-kg medicine ball chest throw (2-kg MBCT) test, Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 (Yo-Yo IRT L1), and tackling and catching tests. Yo-Yo IRT L1, VJ, tackling and catching tests demonstrated greater discriminative ability among Under 16 s, whereas the 2-kg MBCT test showed better ability in Under 19 s. Conclusion All SCRuM variables except skinfolds improved with age, highlighting relative sensitivity in differentiating older from younger athletes. However, the discriminative ability by playing standards for VJ, 2-kg MBCT, Yo-Yo IRT L1, tackling and catching ability tests was age-dependent. These findings informs on general attribute development in junior rugby players with age and on specific players attributes in need of monitoring for attainment of elite status at U16 or U19 level.

Abstract Background This systematic review was conducted with the first objective aimed at providing an overview of the physiological characteristics commonly evaluated in rugby and the corresponding tests used to measure each construct. Secondly, the measurement properties of all identified tests per physiological construct were evaluated with the ultimate purpose of identifying tests with strongest level of evidence per construct. Methods The review was conducted in two stages. In all stages, electronic databases of EBSCOhost, Medline and Scopus were searched for full-text articles. Stage 1 included studies examining physiological characteristics in rugby. Stage 2 included studies evaluating measurement properties of all tests identified in Stage 1 either in rugby or related sports such as Australian Rules football and Soccer. Two independent reviewers screened relevant articles from titles and abstracts for both stages. Results Seventy studies met the inclusion criteria for Stage 1. The studies described 63 tests assessing speed (8), agility/change of direction speed (7), upper-body muscular endurance (8), upper-body muscular power (6), upper-body muscular strength (5), anaerobic endurance (4), maximal aerobic power (4), lower-body muscular power (3), prolonged high-intensity intermittent running ability/endurance (5), lower-body muscular strength (5), repeated high-intensity exercise performance (3), repeated-sprint ability (2), repeated-effort ability (1), maximal aerobic speed (1) and abdominal endurance (1). Stage 2 identified 20 studies describing measurement properties of 21 different tests. Only moderate evidence was found for the reliability of the 30–15 Intermittent Fitness. There was limited evidence found for the reliability and/or validity of 5 m, 10 m, 20 m speed tests, 505 test, modified 505 test, L run test, Sergeant Jump test and bench press repetitions-to-fatigue tests. There was no information from high-quality studies on the measurement properties of all the other tests identified in stage 1. Conclusion A number of physiological characteristics are evaluated in rugby. Each physiological construct has multiple tests for measurement. However, there is paucity of information on measurement properties from high-quality studies for the tests. This raises questions about the usefulness and applicability of these tests in rugby and creates a need for high-quality future studies evaluating measurement properties of these physiological tests. Trial registrations PROSPERO CRD 42015029747 .

Objectives Despite growing popularity of adolescent rugby in Zimbabwean schools, little is known about qualities or skills of schoolboy rugby players and how they differ by competitive level. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to identify anthropometric, physiological characteristics and rugby-specific game skills capable of discriminating under-16 (U16) RU players across three proficiency levels.Methods Following development of School Clinical Rugby Measure test battery, elite rugby players (n=41), subelite rugby players (n=30) and non-rugby players (n=29) were enrolled and tested for height, sitting height, body mass, skinfolds, speed, agility, upper and lower muscular strength and power, prolonged high-intensity intermittent running ability, tackling, passing and catching in a cross-sectional study.Results Elite rugby players displayed significantly better scores for all physiological tests and game skills compared with either subelite or non-rugby players, except for Sit-and-Reach, 20 m speed and L-run tests. However, only vertical jump (VJ) and Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1 (Yo-Yo IRT L1) significantly improved with increasing competitive level. In addition, elite rugby players showed significantly better scores for tackling (p

OBJECTIVE:Transfer of motor skills is the ultimate goal of motor training in rehabilitation practice. In children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), very little is known about how skills are transferred from training situations to real life contexts. In this study we examined the influence of two types of practice on transfer of motor skills acquired in a virtual reality (VR) environment. METHOD:One hundred and eleven children with DCD and their typically developing (TD) peers, aged 6-10 years (M = 8.0 SD = 1.0) were randomly assigned to either variable (n = 56) or repetitive practice (n = 55). Participants in the repetitive practice played the same exergame (ski slalom) twice weekly for 20 minutes, over a period of 5 weeks, while those in the variable group played 10 different games. Motor skills such as balance tasks (hopping), running and agility tasks, ball skills and functional activities were evaluated before and after 5 weeks of training. RESULTS:ANOVA repeated measures indicated that both DCD and TD children demonstrated transfer effects to real life skills with identical and non-identical elements at exactly the same rate, irrespective of the type of practice they were assigned to. CONCLUSION:Based on these findings, we conclude that motor skills acquired in the VR environment, transfers to real world contexts in similar proportions for both TD and DCD children. The type of practice adopted does not seem to influence children's ability to transfer skills acquired in an exergame to life situations but the number of identical elements does.

Although Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is often characterized as a skill acquisition deficit disorder, few studies have addressed the process of motor learning. This study examined learning of a novel motor task; the Wii Fit ski slalom game. The main objectives were to determine: 1) whether learning occurs over 100 trial runs of the game, 2) if the learning curve is different between children with and without DCD, 3) if learning is different in an easier or harder version of the task, 4) if learning transfers to other balance tasks.17 children with DCD (6-10 years) and a matched control group of 17 typically developing (TD) children engaged in 20 minutes of gaming, twice a week for five weeks. Each training session comprised of alternating trial runs, with five runs at an easy level and five runs at a difficult level. Wii scores, which combine speed and accuracy per run, were recorded. Standardized balance tasks were used to measure transfer.Significant differences in initial performance were found between groups on the Wii score and balance tasks. Both groups improved their Wii score over the five weeks. Improvement in the easy and in the hard task did not differ between groups. Retention in the time between training sessions was not different between TD and DCD groups either. The DCD group improved significantly on all balance tasks.The findings in this study give a fairly coherent picture of the learning process over a medium time scale (5 weeks) in children novice to active computer games; they learn, retain and there is evidence of transfer to other balance tasks. The rate of motor learning is similar for those with and without DCD. Our results raise a number of questions about motor learning that need to be addressed in future research.