Quantifying synergies in two-versus-one situations in team sports: An example from Rugby Union

Collective behaviors in team sports result in players forming interpersonal synergies that contribute to performance goals. Because of the huge amount of variables that continuously constrain players’ behavior during a game, the way that these synergies are formed remain unclear. Our aim was to quantify interpersonal synergies in the team sport of Rugby Union. For that purpose we used the Uncontrolled Manifold Hypothesis (UCM) to identify interpersonal synergies that are formed between ball carrier and support player in two-versus-one situations in Rugby Union. The inter-player angle close to the moment of the pass was used as a performance variable and players running lines velocities as task-relevant elements. Interpersonal synergies (UCM values above 1) were found in 19 out of 55 trials under analysis, which means that on 34% of the trials, the players’ running line velocities contribute to stabilizing the inter-player angle close the moment of the pass. The strength of the synergy fluctuates over time indicating the existence of a location effect during attack phases in Rugby Union. UCM analysis shows considerable promise as a performance analysis tool in team sports to discriminate between skilled sub-groups of players.