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

2.3.1 Movement Patterns
Time-motion studies have revealed that the 85% of the match is spent on low intensity
activities (standing, walking, jogging and utility movements) and 15% in high intensity
activities (cruising, sprinting, scrummaging, rucking, mauling, and tackling) (Duthie, 2007;
Deutsch et al., 2007). These findings support the notion that rugby is of interment nature
whereby short bouts of high intensity are interspersed with long periods of low intensity
activity.
Studies of rugby union players reveal that forwards spent significantly more time in the high
intensity phase than backs, because of their greater involvement in rucking, mauling and
scrummaging (Deutsch et al., 2002; Duthie et al., 2003; Duthie et al., 2005). These findings
were supported by a recent study by Deutsch et al., (2007) and Roberts et al., (2008), whereby
forwards spent 12-14% total match time performing high intensity work, while corresponding
value for backs were 4.5-6%. These findings reaffirm the notion that static and dynamic
movements such as rucking, mauling, tackling are critical components in the game of rugby
for forwards. Of high intensity activity, backs spend approximately two to three times more
sprinting than forwards irrespective of playing conditions (Deutsch et al., 1998; Deutsch et al.,
2007; Roberts et al., 2008).
Movement analysis of elite male junior and senior internationals indicate that front row
forwards spend more time standing still, with the trend for this time to decrease as one moves
outwards among the different positional groups (Deutsch et al., 1998; Deutsch et al., 2007;
Roberts et al., 2008). This breakdown of movement suggests that players carrying a greater
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