Introduction

It is argued that boys who are physically mature at a young age, will have advantages over late maturing boys especially in sports where power is important (Beunen et al., 1988; [1] Bloomfield et al., 1994[2]). Biological age (BA) is, however, not taken into consideration in the mostly age-based school competition systems, while it does seem that late developers (LD) could outperform early developers (ED) in terms of their physical and motor abilities later in their adolescent life. The aim of this study was to determine whether BA will have an effect on rugby related characteristics of potentially successful rugby players. This entails the retesting of a group of players (N=34) after a period of 8 years in order to ascertain the abilities, skills and anthropometric characteristics of those showing the most potential at 10 years of age and again at the age of 18 years.

Methods

The best ranked 50 players (N=330) was traced eight years later. Thirty-three players (10%) ranked among the first 50 players (top 15%) was traced and retested (Pienaar, et al.,1998[3]). A physical maturity questionnaire (PMQ), based on the Tanner 5-stages (Docherty, 1996[4]), classified the players as early developers (ED, n=8), average developers (AD, n=20) and late developers (LD, n=5) at the age of 18 years. They were also grouped and compared as successful players (those playing in first teams, n=18), less successful players (those playing in lower teams, n=11) and those who were not playing anymore (n=5). Descriptive statistics, ANOVA (statistical significance, p<0.05, p<0.10), eta squared values and effect size (practical significance of differences) were applied to analyze the data.

Results

Ten-year old early developers (ED) had better aerobic endurance (p<0.05) compared to the other groups, while at the age of 18, the ED group had a higher body mass index, p<0.09). Performance of players in the less successful groups did not differ much from the successful group. They showed tendencies of better sprinting and explosive abilities, while successful players showed more anthropometric characteristics that could benefit senior rugby players.

Discussion/Conclusion

None of the groups were superior with regard to their sport-related rugby abilities at the abovementioned age intervals. However, various trends were observed in the comparison of the developmental groups in both age categories. It can be concluded that despite differences in maturity, it did not have a significant effect on the abilities and attributes of the players in the two age groups. However, more late maturing boys with skills similar to those in the successful group, were found in the less successful group. The only differences indicating a smaller body mass and fat percentage among them might be a disadvantage to them for inclusion in better teams.

 

References

[1] Bloomfield,J, et a.l (1994). Applied anatomy and biomechanics in sport. Melbourne: Blackwell.

[2] Beunen, G.P, et al. (1988). Adolescent growth and motor performance: longitudinal study of

Belgium boys. Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics.

[3] PIENAAR, A..E. et al. (1998). Journal of Sport Science, 16:691-699.

[4] Docherty, D et al. (1996). Measurement in pediatric exercise science. Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics.