The relative age effect in male and female English age-grade rugby union: Exploring the gender-specific mechanisms that underpin participation

Abstract

The relative age effect (RAE) is a phenomenon that represents how young athletes who are born early in the selection year are often overrepresented within youth sport settings. The contact nature of rugby union may further magnify the physiological advantages of those athletes who are chronologically older. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the RAE within English age-grade rugby union. Male (n=228,206) and female (n=23,563) English age-grade rugby union participants were allocated into their 12-month annual age-category (under-7 to under-18). Data was analysed using a chi-square goodness-of-fit test to compare the observed and expected distributions. Significant differences were revealed in all male (p<0.001) and nine out of twelve female (p<0.05) annual-age categories. From a male perspective, a higher relative difference became present at under-14 onwards, suggesting that there may be further implications due to the onset of puberty and the introduction of 15-a-side competition. Further female analysis revealed that there was a within-2-year effect in their 24-month age groups (under-13 and under-15). Interestingly, there was an inverse within-3-year effect (i.e., an overrepresentation of younger players) within the female 36-month age group (under-18). The key findings indicate a RAE has become ingrained in English age-grade rugby union, as well as outlining important genderspecific considerations.

Youth-to-senior transition in women’s and girls’ football: Towards a better understanding of relative age effects and gender-specific considerations

“…Nevertheless, these results merit additional investigation in future research. Focusing on the comparison between Q1 and Q4, research on male football players [ 14 , 43 ] detected a lower quartile transition rate compared to this data (i.e., Q1 = 7% vs. Q4 = 11.1%) in a male Italian sample. Nevertheless, while males had a higher likelihood of relatively younger players making the transition youth-to-senior successfully (about three and four times), our data did not show this difference [ 14 , 33 ].…”

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

“…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 ].…”