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A common practice in youth rugby union is to group players based on (bi)annual age with fixed cut-off dates. The overrepresentation of players born at the start of the cut-off date and the underrepresentation of players born toward the end of the cut-off date are termed relative age effects (RAEs). The aim of this study was to examine RAEs during entry into professional and international rugby union pathways in England, as well as comparing them to their respective senior cohort: U15 Regional Academy Player (n = 1,114) vs. Senior Professional Player (n = 281) and U16–23 England Academy Player (n = 849) vs. Senior International Player (n = 48). Chi-square (χ2) analysis compared birth quarter (BQ) distributions against expected distributions. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals compared the likelihood of a BQ being selected. Findings revealed a significant overrepresentation of relatively older players compared with their relatively younger peers within both youth cohorts (P < 0.001; BQ1 = 42.5% vs. BQ4 = 9.6%; BQ1 = 36.5% vs. BQ4 = 15.2%). In comparison, there was no significant difference in the BQ distributions within both senior cohorts. Further, BQ4s were 3.86 and 3.9 times more likely to achieve senior professional and international levels than BQ1s and BQ2s, respectively. It is suggested that relatively younger players may have a greater likelihood of achieving expertise following entry into a rugby union talent pathway due to benefitting from more competitive play against relatively older counterparts during their development (e.g., reversal effects; the underdog hypothesis). Moreover, possible solutions (e.g., age and anthropometric banding; playing-up and playing-down) are discussed to encourage practitioners and policy makers to create the most appropriate learning environment for every player.

International audience; The purpose of this study was to examine the association between young players’ perception of mother’s and father’s responsiveness with their self-esteem, anxiety (i.e., worry), and thriving (i.e., positive affect, vitality, and life satisfaction). In total, 314 male British rugby players with a mean age of 16.23 years (SD = 0.26) completed the study in two phases: n = 124 (first dataset), and n = 192 (second dataset). Participants trained on average 3.14 times/week (SD = 0.94) and had been involved in rugby for an average of 8.21 years (SD = 2.89). Participants completed questionnaires measuring perceived parental responsiveness (PPR) for their mother and father, self-esteem, worry about sport performance, and thriving indicators (i.e., positive affect, vitality, and life satisfaction). The results consistently indicated that participants’ perceptions of their mother’s and father’s responsiveness positively related to thriving, and negatively related to their worry about sport performance, mediated by their self-esteem. Overall, the study highlights the need for parents to be provided with insights into the value of being responsive to their child and being encouraged to regularly talk with their child regarding their needs and desires, and seeking to understand how their child perceives the support they currently receive.

Research has suggested that competition within talent identification and development systems should be modified from the adult format of the sport to meet the developmental needs of those participating. Yet limited research has evaluated the success of game changes, particularly the effectiveness of modifying the rules of a game to purposefully engineer changes in player behaviour. The purpose of this study was to monitor the impact of rule modifications on player behaviour within a talent identification and development system in rugby union. Performance indicators (ball in play, pass, offload, kick) were collected during full length (70 min) and shortened durations (30-42 min) of competitive matches played during a weeklong under sixteen rugby union festival in 2016 and after rule modifications were introduced in 2017-2019. The findings indicate that rule modifications had the prescribed impact on player actions, particularly in the shortened duration formats of the game. Therefore, rule modifications provide talent developers a tool to manipulate player behaviour, in this case skill attempts, within full-sided competitive matches.