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

47.3 mL/kg/min for elite women’s rugby union forwards and backs respectively. The
estimated maximum oxygen uptake is similar to those of Senior New Zealand Women’s
Rugby Union forwards and backs of 44.75 and 54.48 mL/kg/min respectively (Quarrie et al.,
1995). Interestingly, elite touch rugby union players had superior aerobic power at 50.3
ml/kg/min. A limitation of the multi-stage shuttle run test is that it provides no confirmation
that maximum effort was given by the athlete (Duthie et al., 2003; Scott et al., 2003).
2.4.9 Anaerobic Endurance
A rugby match entails intermittent exercise with varying intensity, from all-out sprints to
static pauses, high power outputs in accelerating into a sprint, jumping for the ball, or in
winning possession of the ball in line-outs or scrums or in intercepting passes (Rienzi et al.,
1999). Hence, a rugby player is required to continually produce short bursts of high intensity
work with minimal loss of power (Nicholas, 1997). Exercise performance in sports that
involve short bursts of intense exercise, such as sprinting or jumping, rely predominantly on
the phosphagen and glycolytic energy system. Players rarely get sufficient time to recover
completely and achieve full synthesis of the creatine phosphate (Spencer, Bishop, Dawson, &
Goodman, 2005). Hence, the ability of the players to continue to produce high intensity
efforts depends on the efficiency of the removal substance produced in the sprint, which
inhibits peak performance (Wadley & Le Rossignol, 1998).
Laboratory research on the anaerobic performance of rugby players have largely focused on
cycle ergometry or treadmill sprinting of short (