unit 5 research project

Unit 5 Research Project

Worthing College Sports Science[Iain Lynch]

2015

To see if there is a relationship between the weight of a scrum and the ability to have a

successful scrum.

P2: Carry out / P4: Produce

Abstract

Write your own abstract for your research project here. Use the experience from the literacy review task as the basis for writing your own abstract. This should be the last part of the write-up that you complete.


Contents: GeneralPage 2 – Project AimPage 3 – Abstract – General ContentPage 5 – Appendices ContentPage 6 – Figures & Tables ContentPage 7 – AcknowledgementsPage 8 – IntroductionPage 9 – Literature Review & ReferencesPage 10 – Project HypothesesPage 11 – MethodPage 12 – Data CollectionPage 13 – Data Analysis Page 14 – ResultsPage 15 – DiscussionPage 16 – ConclusionPage 17 – Review 1/3Page 18 – Review 2/3Page 19 – Review 3/3Page 20 – Future Recommendations 1/5Page 21 – Future Recommendations 2/5Page 22 – Future Recommendations 3/5Page 23 – Future Recommendations 4/5Page 24 – Future Recommendations 5/5


Contents: Appendices

Page 25 – Research Project Appendix Page 26 – Appendix 1Page 27 – Appendix 2Page 28 – Appendix 3Page 29 – Appendix 4


Contents: Figures and Tables

Page 30 – Research Project Figures & TablesPage 31 – Figures & Tables 1Page 32 – Figures & Tables 2Page 33 – Figures & Tables 3Page 34 – Figures & Tables 4


Acknowledgements

• I would like to thanks the Aviva Premiership website as well as: London Wasps; London Welsh; Bath Rugby; Harlequins and Northampton Saints for allowing me to have access to their information.

• Thanks to Paul Cox for the resources needed to complete this unit


IntroductionMy research project which I have spent the last several weeks on, is to found out if there is a relationship between pack weight and the ability to have a successful scrum. I chose to study this as I, myself play as a forward and I am aware that over the last 10 years of the sport, the laws and regulations regarding the scrum have changed to try and make it safer to the players involved. So I wanted to know if the new regulations required teams to rethink the way they scrummage, as 10 years ago it was all about the big hit and having the weight to push the opposition off the ball, but with the way the sport has advanced and developed in recent years, is the scrum still all about that big hit and having a weight advance over the opposition.


Literature Review and References

https://worthingsportscience.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/unit-5-literacy-review-iain-lynch/

..\Unit 5 abstracts.docx





Project Hypothesis

For my research project I have 2 hypotheses which I want to find out. The first is to find out if the team with the heavier pack is able to have a more successful scrums during a game, and does this have an effect on them winning the game. The second is to find out whether or not the team with the constantly heavier pack is able to maintain a successful scrum throughout the season. I am going to do this by studying the individual games statistics and then compare them to other games throughout the season. I think the heavier teams will be able to win more scrums, giving them a greater success percentage. However, whether or not this will mean they are able to win the match is a different discussion.


Method

For my method of the research project, my project is primarily desk based research, as I am gathering all my data from a secondary source. Once I have collected all of the data I need, I will be looking at the starting pack for the teams I am studying in certain games, combining the players individual weights to calculate an overall pack weight. Once I have the packs weight I will look at the games statistics for the scrums, to see how many each team had won and lost during the game. I will repeat this process for all the teams I am studying, and then I will be analysing the results to see if there is a relationship between the pack weight and their ability to win the scrums.

P3: Collect and record / M2: Correctly analyse & describe techniques / D1: Correctly analyse & explain techniques

Data Collection

To collect all the required data I needed I gathered it all from doing desk research as all the data to secondary sourced. Once I have gathered it all from the online sources and have collected and organised the data in a nominal classification, as I have categorised the players into their teams, and then again by their position. To get all the players information I had to go into each teams individual website and search each players profiles. The only other data I need to collect is the game statistics which I was able to gather from a single website.


Data AnalysisFor my research project the data collection and analysis technique I have used is by doing desk research, the data I have collected is quantitative data and is of a secondary source, which I am using to back up my research Hypothesis. I will be analysing the data I have gathered by looking at the starting pack of the teams and by combining the players individual weights to calculate an overall pack weight. Once I have the packs weight I will look at the games statistics for the scrums, to see how many each team had won and lost during the game. I will repeat this process for all the teams I am studying, and then I will be analysing the results to see if there is a relationship between the pack weight and their ability to win the scrums, so this is also a comparative study. I have collected and organised the data in a nominal classification, as I have categorised the players into their teams, and then again by their position.


Results

The results I have gathered show that there is a correlation between the average pack weight and the average success rate of the scrums. From this I can then determine that there is a relationship the pack weight and their ability to win the scrums. However there were 2 teams who had the same matching highest scrummaging success percentage. One of these teams, London Welsh, who have the average highest pack weight and also have the highest average scrummaging success, having a correlation of 0, however they have still yet to win a game on the premier league this season. The team which had the lowest average pack weight, Saints, also had the lowest average scrummaging success rate, correlation of 0, however they have had much better results than Welsh, which means that my hypothesis is partly correct.


Discussion

The results I got I was expecting as the teams which do have the heavier pack are able to have a better scrummaging success rate, however as I was expecting the players don’t have the cardiovascular endurance, and the team struggle in other parts of the game, such as in open play, getting to the break downs. However the only part of the game which I was analysing is the scrums. The team which has the lowest average pack weight, is also the team which is currently top of the Aviva premiership, which means that though they have a smaller pack they are able to get an advantage in other parts of the game.


ConclusionMy aim of the project was ‘To see if there is a relationship between the weight of a scrum and the ability to have a successful scrum.’From the results I have gathered I can see that there is a relationship between the weight of the scrum and the ability to have a successful scrum, as I wanted to find out in the aim. One of my hypotheses which was to see if the team with the pack was able to maintain a successful scrum throughout the session. The other which is to see if the pack with the heavier weight was able to have a more successful scrum rate during a game and whether or not they can turn that into a win. From the statistics I have gathered the teams with the heavier pack have not been able to turn the a successful scrum rate and heavier pack into a win, this could be down to a number of different factors, such as fitness.


Review (1/3)

I feel that the conclusions from my project met my project aim of ‘To see if there is a relationship between the weight of a scrum and the ability to have a successful scrum’. In my study in found that London Welsh on average have the heaviest pack, and from the games I analyzed they have the better scrummaging success. Although they couldn’t turn this advantage they have to winning advantage.

P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

Review (2/3)

What were the strengths of the research project? (include evidence and specific examples)The strengths of my research project, I feel would have to be the data collection and the way I categorised the qualitative, secondary data (see Appendix 4).


Review (3/3)

My area for improvement would be to of gathered more data from Appendix 1. I would of studied all 12 teams in the Aviva premiership and I would of studied more fixtures within the season. Which would give me more correlated data and will mean I can get more accurate and valid results.


Future Recommendations (1/5)

If I was to do my project again, I would also have looked at the forwards bench to see how those players influence the game and whether or not they have a impact on the set pieces (scrums.)

P4: Produce / P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify


The benefits of studying the bench would mean I could analysis the data for both the first and second half, to see if there is any difference in the scrummaging success rate of the teams once they had brought the bench on.



Another recommended improvement for my research project would be, as well as studying all 12 teams within the league, I would do more game analysis of the teams, looking at all 20 rounds of fixtures for the teams. This would mean I would have a lot more data to categories, chart and correlate.



Another thing I could of done if I wanted to be more specific would be to focus on a single team from the premiership and analysis all their games, from all competitions. I would then go into detail analysing the games, and stating how squad selection would have been different for certain competitions and fixtures due to players being away on international duty.



Another recommendation I could do, I was to do this research again would be that I could do a comparison between the pack weights of teams in different countries, to see if there a difference between the playing styles and the general play of the players. I would do this by studying teams in both the southern and northern hemisphere, as it is generally suspected that northern hemisphere teams are more physical up front.


Research Project Appendices

Appendix 1

http://www.premiershiprugby.com/home.php#5QREExw88GosO30d.97

I used the Aviva website to gather the game statistics.





Appendix 2

http://www.bathrugby.com/team/first-fifteen-squad

http://www.quins.co.uk/team/

http://www.london-welsh.co.uk/index.php?mod=rugby_squad








Appendix 3

http://www.northamptonsaints.co.uk/Rugby/Profiles.aspx

http://www.wasps.co.uk/players-staff







Appendix 4

I made this table after gathering the information from the above websites

Research Project Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables 1

This is one of the


This is how I then gathered together the starting 8 from each team, and got an overall pack weight, as well as find the an average weight and a success rate of their scrum.


This table showing the rating and the spearman ranking and correlation.


Spearman ranking and correlation (continued).

unit 5 research project

Education

abstract page

appendices page

general page

introduction page

acknowledgements page

results page

discussion page

method page