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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Coaching: Performance and Development
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1568302
This article is part of the Research Topic Multidisciplinary Approaches to Youth Rugby Talent Development View all articles
Design, Validation, and Reliability of the Bangor Rugby Assessment Tool (BRAT) for Evaluating Technical and Tactical Skills in Rugby Union Development Pathways
Provisionally accepted- Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom
Player profiling is fundamental to effective talent identification and development strategies. However, whilst anthropometric and physiological profiling is customary practice, effective evaluation of technical and tactical skills in team sports has arguably been overlooked, largely due to a lack of suitable measurement tools. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to design, validate, and test the reliability of a novel observational instrument for assessing technical and tactical skills in rugby union. The Bangor Rugby Assessment Tool (BRAT) was developed via the following three stages: (1) completion of a targeted literature search and expert focus group to inform initial item content; (2) Bayesian structural equation modelling (BSEM) to examine instrument factor structure; and (3) establishment of instrument reliability using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results demonstrate excellent model fit (PPP = 0.511) and strong validity for both the technical and tactical factors. ICC values ranged from moderate to excellent, demonstrating good reliability (0.79). The assessment tool offers a valid and reliable tool for measuring technical and tactical aptitude within rugby union, whilst maintaining the requisite practical utility valued by practitioners.
Keywords: Technical, Tactical, Observational instrument, Rugby union, talent development
Received: 29 Jan 2025; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lowe, Owen, Gottwald and Jones. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
George Charles Lowe, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom
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