Relative age effects in international rugby union: Consequences of changing the cutoff date and exploring youth to senior transitions

The Influence of Contextual Factors on the Relative Age Effect in Male International Rugby Union: The Impact of Sociocultural Influences and Playing Position

“…Moreover, despite the various cut-off dates across different countries (i.e., January to December, September to August, April to March), the RAE remained consistent. Indeed, similar findings have shown how the RAE remains prevalent in youth rugby union irrelevant of the change of cut-off date [ 12 ]. Therefore, practitioners and policymakers should be cautious of independent cut-off dates and how they can influence player development opportunities at both youth and senior levels.…”

“…It is plausible to suggest that rugby union’s contact and invasive nature combined with the high physical demand required during competition may exacerbate the RAE [ 12 ]. A player being chronologically older than peers may lead to performance requirement advantages [ 13 ], including rucking, running with the ball, scrummaging, and tackling.…”

“…In this regard, several national studies in the rugby union context, especially considering European countries [ 12 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], who identified an over- and under-representation of the relatively older and younger players, respectively, highlighted the influence of contextual factors such as gender, age group, competition level, sociocultural factors, and playing position. In male rugby, a birthdate inequality was observed in UK rugby league during initial enrolment at grassroots level that starts from the Under-7 stage until the senior age group [ 21 ].…”

“…Moreover, differences in the playing philosophy (i.e., technical, and tactical model of performance) were reported to exist between northern and southern hemispheres (e.g., more offloads, more tries in southern hemisphere), as well as in the strength and conditioning practice (e.g., emphasis on strength and power training or on objectively determining training loads) [ 28 , 29 ]. Together, these findings suggested that the possible differences in national culture and playing position are important considerations to examine while exploring who is at risk of the RAE [ 12 ].…”