Abstract

Ex-England Rugby Union (RU) Head Coach Brian Ashton (Austin, 2018) described RU as “VUCA” (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous). In such environments, physical attributes alone do not differentiate elite players from the rest (Reilly et al., 2000; Elferink Gemser et al., 2010; Di Tore et al., 2018). Game intelligence (GI) is viewed as a key but under-defined construct (Lennartsson et al., 2015; Harrison et al., 2023; Telfar, 2024) and may differentiate the academy-to-professional transition in RU (Memmert, 2011; O’Connor & Larkin, 2015b; Williams & Ford, 2013). As part of a scoping study, Orwin et al. (2024) proposed an initial definition and conceptual framework for GI in RU, comprising situational awareness (SA), decision-making (DM), knowledge and understanding (K&U), and influence (I).