Influence of role and competition stage on movement, heart rate and perceived task load characteristics of match officials during men’s and women’s Rugby League World Cup

Johnson, E, Highton, J and Twist, C Influence of role and competition stage on movement, heart rate and perceived task load characteristics of match officials during men’s and women’s Rugby League World Cup. Journal of Sports Sciences. ISSN 0264-0414 (Accepted)

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Abstract

We examined the influence of rugby league match officials’ role and competition stage on movement, heart rate and subjective task loads during international competition. Measures were recorded from all 28 match officials (male n = 25; female n = 3; 4 ± 3 matches per official) comprising 42 referee and 84 touch judge performances from Men’s (n = 29) and Women’s (n = 13) World Cup matches. More accelerations (p = 0.003) and decelerations (p = 0.013), higher mean heart rates (p = 0.006) and perceived physical load (p < 0.001) and less high-speed running (p = 0.002) occurred in referees compared to touch judges. Distance, high-speed running, accelerations/decelerations, heart rate, and subjective mental, physical, temporal, effort and frustration loads (all p < 0.05) were higher during the Men’s compared to Women’s competition. Mean speed and high-speed running (all p < 0.05) decreased between halves in the Knockout stage, while subjective mental, physical, temporal and effort load increased (all p < 0.05). Declines in relative high-speed running between halves was also greater during the Knockout stage (p = 0.016). The on-field role, the competition and stage influence the physical, heart rate and perceived task loads of rugby league match officials.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1106 Human Movement and Sports Sciences; 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy; Sport Sciences; 3202 Clinical sciences; 4207 Sports science and exercise; 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine
Divisions:	Sport and Exercise Sciences
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
Date of acceptance:	25 April 2025
Date Deposited:	25 Apr 2025 15:53
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2025 16:00
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26269

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