Development, validation and reliability of a questionnaire to evaluate coaches' and players' perceptions, learning, and resources regarding the ruck in rugby union

Background: The absence of a valid and reliable research tool for evaluating the attitudes, behaviours, and learning resources of rugby coaches and players concerning the ruck event presents a critical gap in the current rugby research landscape.
Objectives: The objective of this study was twofold: firstly, to adapt an existing questionnaire that focussed on the tackle event, and secondly, to validate and establish the reliability of the instrument. The questionnaire is designed to explore the attitudes, behaviours, and learning resources of rugby coaches and players, with a particular emphasis on the ruck event and its potential impact on the field of rugby coach development, coaching practices, and player development.
Methods: To assess content, construct, clarity, and relevance validation, a seven-step design process was followed, resulting in a high-quality questionnaire evaluated by a panel of 12 experts. Subsequently, a test-retest procedure involving 15 coaches and 16 players highlights the effectiveness of this questionnaire, emphasising its potential to generate data that can impact the field of rugby coaching and player development.
Results: The validity and reliability assessment revealed that the expert panel found the questionnaire to be appropriate, and clear, and the mean time for completion was approximately 22 minutes. The ICC Agreement scores of 0.71 for players and 0.88 for coaches indicate moderate and good agreement respectively, further corroborated by narrow 95% Confidence Intervals. ICC Consistency scores (0.71 for players and 0.87 for coaches) affirmed high response consistency. In Kendall’s W scores, players achieved 0.85, while coaches reached 0.93, with significant F-statistics (p < 0.01) supporting strong agreement.
Conclusion: This study introduces a methodically developed questionnaire, recognised for its clarity, reliability, and consistency. It serves as a valuable resource for future research in rugby, possessing the potential to influence coach development, coaching practices, and player development. Therefore, it makes an important contribution to the field.

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