The management of training load is essential for elite performance and injury-prevention. In fact, performance and injury-prevention cannot be discussed independent of one another, since squads that retain higher proportions of healthy, uninjured players for longer, are known to perform better.  Load management is thus an injury prevention strategy and a performance optimization strategy.

Contact Load Guidelines

International Rugby Players and World Rugby recently conducted a global survey of the professional game to better understand how players currently engage in contact during training.  This survey was used in combination with research on injury risk and injury surveillance studies, to inform an expert working group that was convened to advise on best practice and create contact training guidelines for the elite global rugby community. In addition to the Contact Load Guideline, World Rugby has also produced a Contact Load Infographic.