ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2021
Trends in player body mass at men's and women's Rugby World Cups: a plateau in body mass and differences in emerging rugby nations.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Macronutrient requirements and intake by professional male rugby players.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025Article
- Seasonal Body Composition Changes in Elite Rugby Players: DXA and Anthropometry-Based Comparison of Backs and Forwards.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- Trends in body mass between finalist teams in the Japanese collegiate rugby union championship: a 15-year analysis.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- Stress urinary incontinence prevalence and risk factors in female rugby players: a common health problem across four nations.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2024Article
- The Epidemiology of Injuries in Spanish Rugby Union División de Honor.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Observational
- A game for all shapes and sizes? Changes in anthropometric and performance measures of elite professional rugby union players 1999-2018.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2022Article
- Applied sports science and sports medicine in women's rugby: systematic scoping review and Delphi study to establish future research priorities.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThis study assessed the mass of international rugby players in the men's and women's Rugby World Cups between 1991 and 2019. The objective was to quantify changes in mass of players by position, and to compare changes between men and women, and between established (Tier 1 (T1)) and emerging (Tier 2 (T2)) rugby nations.
settingRugby World Cups from 1991 to 2019 for men's players and 2010 to 2017 for women's players.
participants4447 elite male and 958 elite female players. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Player body mass, grouped as men and women, T1 and T2 nations, and by playing position, assessed over time.
resultsMen's player mass increased significantly between 1991 and 2019 (T1 overall 9.7% increase), but this increase occurred almost entirely up to 2011. Women's forwards mass increased by 4.8% in T1, with no changes in T2 or backs from either tier. Significant differences in mass were found between T1 and T2 forwards and backs for both men and women.
conclusionsThe body mass of men's players has stabilised after initial increases following professionalisation. Player body mass may be approaching a plateau, beyond which no further performance advantages occur. Changes to laws and tactical approaches by coaches may have contributed to this, by changing match demands on players, necessitating endurance, agility and speed. Trends in the evolution of T2 players suggest a barrier to identifying and developing heavy athletic players, and may require intervention to ensure competitive parity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.