Document is current

Article History

Accepted: 6 November 2025

First Online: 27 November 2025

Declarations

:

: World Rugby funded the study.

: Ethics approval for this study was provided by the Leeds Beckett University Ethics Committee (REF: 108638) in accordance with ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

: Participants provided informed consent for the use of their data in research studies.

: Data are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

: Code is available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

: TS and GR’s roles are part-funded by Premiership Rugby and World Rugby. JT’s role is part-funded by the Rugby Football League, Premiership Rugby and World Rugby. CO is part-funded by the Rugby Football League. JB’s role is part-funded by World Rugby and he has received funding from World Rugby. MC is employed by Premiership Rugby. LS and ÉF are employed by World Rugby. MSG is a director of Causal Insights Solutions Ltd, which provides causal inference training and may benefit from any study that demonstrates the value of causal inference methods. SHu PhD is funded by the Rugby Football Union. KS and SK are employed by the Rugby Football Union. RT is employed by World Rugby as a consultant. SHe has no conflicts of interest. BJ is employed by Premiership Rugby and Rugby Football League as a consultant and has received funding from World Rugby.

: ÉF, LS and RT led the global roll-out and management of the World Rugby iMG project, which this study is part of. TS, GR, LS, ÉF, RT and BJ conceptualised the study. JT, BJ, MC, ÉF, SHu, SK, LS, KS and RT were involved in data collection. TS and MSG performed the statistical analysis. TS, MSG, GR, JT, CO, JB, She, RT and BJ interpreted the results. TS, GR, JT, CO and BJ drafted the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed and edited the manuscript prior to submission.