The performance indicators of men’s rugby sevens based on the tournament and team ranking between world, Asian, and Malaysia team / Norasrudin Sulaiman

The performance of Malaysia Men’s Rugby Seven is un-consistence. Thus, identification of performance indicators related to the ranking of the team and different tournaments in the world rugby sevens series, Asian series, and Malaysia is needed for a tactical approach especially in improving the Malaysia Men’s Rugby Seven team. This thesis aims to characterize team performance indicators based on tournament level and team ranking between World, Asian, and Malaysia men’s rugby sevens teams. A total of 142 matches (n=142) from different levels of the world series, Asian series, and Malaysia team from years 2018 to 2020 were collected using a notational analysis form. Fifteen performance indicators adapted by Higham et al. (2014) are used for data collection. The performance indicators variables are extracted from the excel spreadsheet using the visual basic application of Microsoft excel before being exported to SPSS version 26.0 with the significant value is set at p≤0.05. There is eight study namely; study one, comparing the performance between top-four teams in HSBC Los Angeles series; study two, comparing the performance between middle-four teams in HSBC Los Angeles series; study three, comparing the performance between top-four teams in HSBC Canada series; study four, comparing the performance between middle-four teams in HSBC Canada series; study five, comparing the performance between top-five teams in Asia Games Men’s Rugby Seven tournament; study six, comparing the performance between top-four teams in HSBC Los Angeles and Canada Series with Malaysia Men’s Rugby sevens team; study sevens, comparing the performance between middle-four teams in HSBC Los Angeles and Canada Series with Malaysia Men’s Rugby sevens team and ; study eight, comparing the performance between winning and losing of Malaysia Men’s Rugby sevens team. Based on the analysis, there is a significant difference (p≤ 0.05) in study one, two, three, four, six, seven and eight. However, there is no significant different (p≥0.05) study five. There are a different in phase of play between top four team and between middle four team in international level of tournaments, comparison between top four and Malaysia men’s rugby seven team, and comparison between middle four and Malaysia men’s rugby seven team. However, there is no significant different in phase of play among top five team in Asia. As overall, this thesis finding may facilitate into understanding the role of pattern plays in men’s rugby sevens between the world level teams and Asia level teams based on tournaments level and team ranking. Moreover, the finding from this research can be utilized by the coaches and practitioners in improving the phase of play in rugby sevens based on higher ranking team performance.