古川　拓生

[Received June 29, 2022; Accepted October 21, 2022] 

This study aims to determine the changes around the effectiveness of ball possession, and ball-winning tactics in seven-a-side rugby kick-off plays. A total of 437 kick-offs in 68 matches in two Olympic Games were analysed in seven categories: kicking area, player positioning, contest method, lifting players to contest for the ball, kick-off outcome, the result of play and opposition territory possession time. Results showed that the try-scoring rate was about 25% in the immediately following play and about 50% at the end of two consecutive attacks when the kicking team retained possession from kick-offs. On the other hand, when the receiving team won possession, the try-scoring rate was about half of the kicking team respectively. The research found the difference in about 6 seconds between the territorial possession when the receiving team retained possession. An increase in short kicks to retain the ball was also found in kick-off tactics. Furthermore, a change in contesting methods created numerical advantages such as indirect ball receipt by dispersing the kicks and choose kicking areas aiming to reduce the lifting advantages. This research found that the kick-off tactics in seven-a-side rugby in recent years have changed more towards winning contested balls.

Keywords: ７人制ラグビー, キックオフ獲得, 戦術変様, 記述分析

[Football Science Vol.19, 100-113, 2022]