The role of skill in task execution among elite rugby players has become the
focus of numerous researchers. Thus, this study aimed to explore the
frequency, the most highly utilized and successful as well as unsuccessful
attempts of evasive agility skills executed by attacking ball carriers among
elite rugby players and their relationship to selected phase outcomes. The
study undertaken was a structured non-participant observational descriptive
study, conducted through notational analysis of the recorded 2015 Rugby
World Cup matches with the sample being attacking ball carriers among the
top three and bottom three elite rugby teams which participated in the 2015
Rugby World Cup. The descriptive analyses of the current study undertaken
revealed that attacking ball carriers among the top three displayed a 59%
(straight), 39% (side-step) and 2% (crossover-step) while the bottom three
exhibited a 45% (straight), 52% (side-step) and 3% (crossover-step) of these
movement patterns. Alternatively, the inferential statistical analyses indicated
that for both the teams there was no significant difference in the frequency of
the execution of the side-step and crossover-step (p>0.05) while a significant
difference was observed for these teams for the straight evasive agility skill
(p0.05) while a significant
difference was observed for these teams for the straight evasive agility skill
(p