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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
For my research project, I have been studying the pack weights for a number of teams
in the Aviva rugby premiership to see if there is a relationship between the pack
weights and the number of scrums that team is able to win in a single game and if
they can maintain this success throughout the season. This project meant I had to
compile data from a number of different website and organise into a table from which
I would gather my data from once I started to analysis the matches. This research
project was all to be conducted as desk research, as an observational task, as all I was
doing was collecting quantitative secondary data and analysing it. Once I had all this
data about the players and their weights, the next step in my method was to analysis
the matches played to get the required statistics, starting 8 in the scrum and the
scrummaging statistics of the match. Once I have all the data I need I will compare
both of these factors against those of the matches I will figure out the averages of the
scrummaging success for each team in each of their games and their average pack
weights. The results I got from my research showed that the teams with the heavier
packs had the more successful scrummaging successful on average, over the course of
the game I studied. The results were what I was predicting, in terms of the heavier
pack having the greater successful in the scrums, although I was apprehensive about
the results as there are other factors which could contribute to a teams scrummaging
success, such as through technique. The results showed that there is a relationship
between the pack weights and the scrummaging success as well as correlation.

Contents: General
Page 2 – Project Aim
Page 3 – Abstract
Page 4 – General Content
Page 5 – Appendices Content
Page 6 – Figures & Tables Content
Page 7 – Acknowledgements
Page 8 – Introduction
Page 9 – Literature Review & References
Page 10 – Project Hypotheses
Page 11 – Method
Page 12 – Data Collection
Page 13 – Data Analysis
Page 14 – Results
Page 15 – Discussion
Page 16 – Conclusion
Page 17 – Review 1/3
Page 20 – Future Recommendations 1/5

Contents: Appendices
Page 25 – Research Project Appendix
Page 26 – Appendix 1

Contents: Figures and Tables
Page 30 – Research Project Figures & Tables
Page 31 – Figures & Tables 1

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

Introduction
My 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/20
15/02/27/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 Analysis
For 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, as that is
what I am focusing my project on. Next stage was to look at statistics for the scrums
from each game, to see how many each team had won and lost during the game, and
to get an more accurate reading I got an percentage of the scrummaging success. I
repeated this process for all the teams I am studying, and then I analysed 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 by
their position respectively. The techniques I used represent the my data analysis was
by using the spearman ranking and correlation. I used this because I felt it would be
the best way to analysis the data as it gives an negative and positive results, and it
shows how strong the correlation. A correlation shows the relationship between 2 or
more things on a 1 to -1 rating. For my research the correlation is between the pack
weight and the scrummaging success rate. My results were 0.85, which means that I
have a very strong positive correlation between my 2 factors, which shows that as the
pack weight goes up so does the scrum success rate.

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.

Conclusion
My 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 had the heaviest pack, and from the games I
analyzed they also had the better scrummaging success, and they were
ranked highest in the spearman rankings of my data analysis. However
they are yet to turn this advantage they have into winning advantage,
although there are a number of different factors which have to be
considered and which could influence the teams ability to win a match.
Teams could benefit from doing this sort of study as for example, is
this case London Welsh though having the most successful scrums, are
the team who are bottom of the league. They can benefit from this as
they can justify that this is not their weakest area of the game,
therefore allowing them to focus more no other areas of the game.
P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

Review (2/3)
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 1-3). This data was easily accessible and
to find. This meant it didn’t take long to find and
gather all of my required data and meant I could
focus on other parts of my project. If I however
wanted to do my first future recommendation, I
wouldn’t struggle with collecting the data as I had
already the means and know how of how to find
the information that I need.

Review (3/3)
My area for improvement would be the literacy
review, as in my opinion I struggled with this as I
found it difficult to find appropriate abstracts which
share a common Population, Measure and Variable
to mine. The ones I did found and use I feel are
useable however I would of preferred better ones
which share more in common with my research
project aim, or even amend my aim slightly, if it
meant I would benefit more from finding abstracts
which matched either my: population; measure or
variable.

Future Recommendations (1/5)
If I was to do my project again, I would also have looked
at the forwards replacements to see how those players
influence the game and whether or not they have a
impact on the (scrums.), this would mean breaking the
game down even more which would then give me more
data for each game to analysis and compare. This sort of
data would be useful for the coaching staff of the team as
they can compare a number of players playing in the
same position during a game against the same
opposition, as for example they could see which prop was
better at winning their individual battle against their
opposite man.
P4: Produce / P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

If I was to run my research project again, one recommendation
that I would make would be see if there was another why to
analysis the data I have collected and then see there is another
why in which I could present it, possibly presenting it in a
number of graphs and tables and then do a comparative study.
This way it makes it clearer to understand for me and
presentable. The benefits of this if it was successful would be if
you struggled to understand the spearman ranking and
correlation results the graphs would make it easier to
understand as there would be a graphs with all the teams pack
weights, I feel a bar graph would represent this best, and a pie
chart for the scrum successes as they are in percentages.

Another recommended improvement for my
research project would be, as well as studying all
12 teams within the selected league, as well as
analysing more games by looking at all rounds of
fixtures for the teams. This would mean I would
have a lot more data to gather; categorise; chart
and correlate. This would mean I would have a
better set of data and could then have a better
results which would give me a better conclusion
for my research.

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, across all
competitions. I would then go into detail analysing the
games, and stating how squad selection could have been
an factor in the result, and how the squad can change
depending on the competition being played as well as
when players are away on international duty or injury.
This then gives those players who don’t normally get a lot
of game time a chance to show themselves and prove
they are capable of performing, and challenging for a
permanent place in the team.

Another recommendation I could do if I was to do this
research project 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 physic of the players. I
would do this by studying teams from both the southern
and northern hemisphere, as it is generally suspected
that northern hemisphere teams are more physical up
front. This would give me the ability to test this theory
and see if there is a significant difference between players
physics in the 2 hemisphere teams, I would do this by
looking at the players profiles and comparing them the
players to their opposite number.

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/Pr
ofiles.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).

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Unit 5 research project

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Unit 5 research project