A Study of Effective Rugby Punts in Japanese High School Tournaments

Abstract

    The study aims to quantitatively evaluate the use of punts in high school rugby games to clarify their practical use by winning teams. The subjects were 49 games, which were close game aspects, which were punts (n＝1,349) in the national high school rugby tournament seasons from 2015–2019. The punts were categorized into game-time, area, start of possession, rucks and mauls (R/Ms), position, and type. A Mann-Whitney U test was conducted between the winning and losing teams, and discriminant analysis was subsequently performed.
    The results revealed that if the median punts used in a Japanese high school tournament match is 12, the punts achieved greater statistical significance in winning teams in relation to 45–60min of game-time (U＝695, p<.01), Turnover (U＝776.5, p<.01) and Restart (U＝765, p<.01), than in losing teams. In particular, the results suggest that punts in Turnover are effective. The use of high punt, short punt, grubber kick, and punts from the scrum half is limited in current high school tournament matches. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the technical aspects and decisionmaking process of executing punts.