Physical fitness of elite women's rugby union players over a ...

A reasonably high aerobic fitness level is important for the ability to sustain high intensity,
intermittent exercise bouts so as to aid the recovery between repeated periods of ball retention
and repeated recycling off the ball (Evans, 1973). The estimated maximum oxygen uptake of
the backs (46.49 ± 4.75 ml•kg -1 •min -1 ) and forwards (41.12 ± 9.28 ml•kg -1 •min -1 ) of this study
were lower than those of the Senior New Zealand Union forwards and backs (44.75 and 54.48
ml•kg -1 •min -1 respectively) (Quarrie et al., 1995). The lower aerobic fitness values of the elite
South African women players has the potential to limit their ability to recover quickly
between high intensity efforts during a match thus having an adverse effect on skill execution
level in game defining moments such as scoring or preventing the opposition from scoring.
With skills-based games been used to develop the skill and fitness of rugby players (Gabbett
et al., 2008), the conditioning staff should focus more on skill-based conditioning games over
traditional interval training to enhance aerobic fitness.
For most elite rugby research studies, an increased aerobic fitness was reported at pre-season
(Holmyard & Hazeldine, 1993; Gabbett, 2005a; Tong & Mayes, 1995) with a decrease being
observed towards the end of the season (Gabbett, 2005a). The significant improvements in
fitness in the early stages of the season have been attributed to the high training loads
experience during this period (Gabbett, 2005a), while reductions in aerobic fitness as the
season progressed may be due to lower training loads and higher match loads and injury rates
during this period (Gabbett, et al., 2008). In contrast to these studies, there were no changes in
aerobic fitness over the entire season for backs, whilst improvements in aerobic endurance for
forwards were witnessed from mid-season onwards. Based on these findings, it seems that the
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