Cargando…

Changes in northern hemisphere male international rugby union players’ body mass and height between 1955 and 2015

OBJECTIVES: We sought to establish the effects of professionalism, which officially began in 1995, on the body mass and height of northern hemisphere male international rugby union (RU) players. We hypothesised that mass would significantly increase following professionalism. We also investigated th...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hill, Neil E, Rilstone, Sian, Stacey, Michael J, Amiras, Dimitri, Chew, Stephen, Flatman, David, Oliver, Nick S
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6267308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30555718
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000459
_version_ 1783376037717999616
author Hill, Neil E
Rilstone, Sian
Stacey, Michael J
Amiras, Dimitri
Chew, Stephen
Flatman, David
Oliver, Nick S
author_facet Hill, Neil E
Rilstone, Sian
Stacey, Michael J
Amiras, Dimitri
Chew, Stephen
Flatman, David
Oliver, Nick S
author_sort Hill, Neil E
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: We sought to establish the effects of professionalism, which officially began in 1995, on the body mass and height of northern hemisphere male international rugby union (RU) players. We hypothesised that mass would significantly increase following professionalism. We also investigated the changes in size of players according to their playing position, and we compared changes to rugby league (RL) players and the public. METHODS: The body mass and height of players representing their international team for that country’s first game of the Five Nations in 1955, 1965, 1975, 1985 and 1995 and, for 2005 and 2015, the Six Nations, were collected from matchday programmes. RL players’ data were collected from the Challenge Cup final games played in the same years. RESULTS: International RU player body mass has significantly increased since 1995. In 1955 mean (±SD) player body mass was 84.8  kg (±8.2); in 2015, it was 105.4  kg (±12.1), an increase of 24.3%. Between 1955 and 2015, the body mass of forwards increased steadily, whereas that of backs has mostly gone up since 1995. RU player body mass gain has exceeded that of RL, but the age-matched difference between RU players and the public has remained relatively constant. CONCLUSIONS: The factors influencing the gain in body mass of rugby players are legion; however, we believe that the interpretation of the law relating to the scrum put-in and changes allowing substitutions have, at least in part, contributed to the observed changes. Injury severity is increasing, and this may be linked to greater forces (caused by greater body mass) occurring in contact. RU law makers should adjust the rules to encourage speed and skill at the expense of mass.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6267308
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-62673082018-12-16 Changes in northern hemisphere male international rugby union players’ body mass and height between 1955 and 2015 Hill, Neil E Rilstone, Sian Stacey, Michael J Amiras, Dimitri Chew, Stephen Flatman, David Oliver, Nick S BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med Original Article OBJECTIVES: We sought to establish the effects of professionalism, which officially began in 1995, on the body mass and height of northern hemisphere male international rugby union (RU) players. We hypothesised that mass would significantly increase following professionalism. We also investigated the changes in size of players according to their playing position, and we compared changes to rugby league (RL) players and the public. METHODS: The body mass and height of players representing their international team for that country’s first game of the Five Nations in 1955, 1965, 1975, 1985 and 1995 and, for 2005 and 2015, the Six Nations, were collected from matchday programmes. RL players’ data were collected from the Challenge Cup final games played in the same years. RESULTS: International RU player body mass has significantly increased since 1995. In 1955 mean (±SD) player body mass was 84.8  kg (±8.2); in 2015, it was 105.4  kg (±12.1), an increase of 24.3%. Between 1955 and 2015, the body mass of forwards increased steadily, whereas that of backs has mostly gone up since 1995. RU player body mass gain has exceeded that of RL, but the age-matched difference between RU players and the public has remained relatively constant. CONCLUSIONS: The factors influencing the gain in body mass of rugby players are legion; however, we believe that the interpretation of the law relating to the scrum put-in and changes allowing substitutions have, at least in part, contributed to the observed changes. Injury severity is increasing, and this may be linked to greater forces (caused by greater body mass) occurring in contact. RU law makers should adjust the rules to encourage speed and skill at the expense of mass. BMJ Publishing Group 2018-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6267308/ /pubmed/30555718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000459 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
spellingShingle Original Article
Hill, Neil E
Rilstone, Sian
Stacey, Michael J
Amiras, Dimitri
Chew, Stephen
Flatman, David
Oliver, Nick S
Changes in northern hemisphere male international rugby union players’ body mass and height between 1955 and 2015
title Changes in northern hemisphere male international rugby union players’ body mass and height between 1955 and 2015
title_full Changes in northern hemisphere male international rugby union players’ body mass and height between 1955 and 2015
title_fullStr Changes in northern hemisphere male international rugby union players’ body mass and height between 1955 and 2015
title_full_unstemmed Changes in northern hemisphere male international rugby union players’ body mass and height between 1955 and 2015
title_short Changes in northern hemisphere male international rugby union players’ body mass and height between 1955 and 2015
title_sort changes in northern hemisphere male international rugby union players’ body mass and height between 1955 and 2015
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6267308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30555718
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000459
work_keys_str_mv AT hillneile changesinnorthernhemispheremaleinternationalrugbyunionplayersbodymassandheightbetween1955and2015
AT rilstonesian changesinnorthernhemispheremaleinternationalrugbyunionplayersbodymassandheightbetween1955and2015
AT staceymichaelj changesinnorthernhemispheremaleinternationalrugbyunionplayersbodymassandheightbetween1955and2015
AT amirasdimitri changesinnorthernhemispheremaleinternationalrugbyunionplayersbodymassandheightbetween1955and2015
AT chewstephen changesinnorthernhemispheremaleinternationalrugbyunionplayersbodymassandheightbetween1955and2015
AT flatmandavid changesinnorthernhemispheremaleinternationalrugbyunionplayersbodymassandheightbetween1955and2015
AT olivernicks changesinnorthernhemispheremaleinternationalrugbyunionplayersbodymassandheightbetween1955and2015