TABLE 3.

Thematic analysis of UNI and PRO Rugby Union players verbalisations of their decision making process [number in brackets denotes the number of references made to theme].

Population	Classification	Deductive themes	Meaningful Units	Raw data examples
UNI	No thought	Perception of information (45)	No time (5)	“That’s no thought again, sort of turned at the last second didn’t have time to think.”
			Opponents movements (22)	“Because it’s just like, he changed direction so you’ve just got to make it.”
			Teammates movements (7)	“**** made contact with him and I just assume he would and then he got passed and I’ve just got to hit him. It was an impulse decision.”
			The ball (10)	“Just the balls there, it’s bouncing around like a pin ball so just dove on it. I can’t even remember doing that after the game.”
PRO	No thought	Perception of information	Audio (3)	“Just heard something and reacted with an offload.”
		(56)	No time (10)	“I didn’t have time to look up to scan, which put us in an awkward position.”
			Opponents body position (6)	“There’s no real thought there, was just get over it, deal with any threats and get low.”
			Opponents movements (19)	“That’s just a reaction, he’s come down the channel, can’t really explain it more than that.”
			Teammates movements (12)	“We’ve got a big emphasis on ‘pushing through’ at the moment, so when I see a break like this one it’s almost just instinctive to sprint and follow.”
			The ball (6)	“There just no logical decision here, I’ve not assessed the actual ruck area, I’ve just seen the ball and gone for it.”
UNI	Fast thought	Perception of information (110)	Audio (4)	“The thought behind it is the 9 has picked to go left and then I’ve heard the bounce back call, so that’s given me time to get up.”
			Opponents body position (3)	“I definitely thought about how I was going to clean him out. But that was at the last second when I hit him, I hit him and he didn’t move so I had to react and roll him out.”
			Opponents movements (39)	“So here I’m thinking he passes to me and I go under, but I didn’t see the 14, until the last second which is when I gave it. I only really had two options to pass or have a go, but it changed from have a go to pass at the last second when I saw the 14.”
			Teammates movements (24)	“Bit of a fast thought. Initially it wasn’t my tackle, so it was whether to go in or not. I see that it’s a semi dominant carry so I had to go in to help out.”
			Defensive picture (24)	“Space was there, no need to wait and give them time – let’s just go.”
			Offensive picture (4)	“I think I seen, I looked behind the line so I knew that they had no real options on outside, so I shot up a little bit, it was just fast thought to shoot up a little bit.”
			Time (12)	“It is my job to look out for the overthrows and tips but not always expecting them to stuff up their line outs. When it does though I’ve got like a split second to react. My first response is always to just carry.”
PRO	Fast thought	Perception of information (164)	Audio (6)	“Also I heard as I took a step forward the ball player out the back say shadow as he’d obviously seen a clear opportunity to act.”
			Haptic (3)	“So the hit doesn’t go to well, and then he’s sort of on the outside, and I’m thinking at this time about getting forward so he can’t get around me.”
			Opponents body position (20)	“Just remember looking at his body shape, there just wasn’t an easy place for me to put a shoulder in, it looked like I might simply hit and bounce off. Which led me to think, right let’s just wrap him up it’s the safer option. I’ve only got the ability to go through this thought process because of the time that’s available when I’m chasing. But I’ve put this down as fast thought as at the last second I knew I couldn’t get to the ball. As the kick was coming down was where I had to make the decision of when and how to tackle.”
			Opponents movements (25)	“Again that’s a similar sort of thing, my first decision is to join or stay away depending on which side he steps, or where he runs, indicated whether I go in or not.”
			Teammates movements (24)	“I remember wanting to pass to the fullback coming short but he stayed wide, which meant my decision was made for me, so I pumped and bought the ball back in and tried to run into the gap myself.”
			Defensive picture (26)	“But as it developed I can remember their tail man at the lineout looking directly at our 9. Which if he chases leaves a nice healthy gap for me.”
			Offensive picture (20)	“It’s a fast thought process because I’ve seen that they had a lot more numbers than we did on that side of the ruck so I’ve just arse ended across and continued to go across.”
UNI	Slow thought	Perception of information (95)	Defensive picture (26)	“Cause this one was more there wingers were dropping really deep as they thought we were exiting. I was looking up every time I received the ball to see how deep their wingers were on each touchline. They had a minimum of two players drop back each time and just kick it long and push both wingers backward instead of having them both run onto the ball.”
			Offensive picture (13)	“Their numbers up, the defensive set up we’re going to have to wedge. They’ve got 21 coming short, so I stick on him and then the ball goes so I wedge off”
			Opponents movements (18)	“It was my man, sort of lined him up but just yeah he’s always my man, I’ve just shot up a bit and yeah it’s a slow thought. Because I’ve had 5 seconds to hit him, sort of when you’re in the line waiting for the ball to come out I was thinking I’m going to hit him, he’s my man sort of thing.”
			Teammates movements (13)	“That was just us running a Nike – **** was running a hard line and then one of their lads jumped out and **** was the only option in my head.”
			Time (25)	“We had our line set and I saw him calling for the ball, so I had time to get my head up and make the tackle. Yeah, I knew that that was my tackle.”
PRO	Slow thought	Perception of information (99)	Audio (11)	“So I hear from the outside that **** calls ‘chilli’ so I look up and see we’ve got numbers. So as I get the ball I’m looking to see how the man I’m engaging reacts, but he stay’s on us so I make the pass. If he hadn’t of stayed on us, I would have carried into the space. ‘Chilli’ pretty much means lets move the ball wide because there’s space.”
			Defensive picture (16)	“Another slow thought, as I’ve pre-called the lineout. They gave me the space where I called it so I took it.”
			Offensive picture (17)	“Erm, I’ll say slow thought for that one. 2. I was quite unsure of who my man was. I didn’t hear too much communication from inside me so I had to stay a little bit longer than I would have liked before I could push off and get to the shadow. He was quick as well which made it tougher. Yeah so, slow thought didn’t have much from inside me, didn’t have much from outside me so I had to process all the information myself to make the decision.”
			Haptic (8)	“Trying to maintain shape and working on my shoulder are the things I‘m consciously working on and in my set up working with ****, he’s a really good prop if he moves forward, but If he moves forward he struggles, so there’s a lot of talk with him and a lot of set up with him before trying to get him forward, so I can get him through, we’re always saying get your inside shoulder through and your left foot up so he’s nice and square so he can get through.”
			Opponents movements (14)	“I’m assessing whether the 9’s running, no, get out and get on his inside, and then I just folded round the corner when asked.”
			Teammates movements (15)	“But then it changed as the pass went to him instead and it disrupted things. Really, he should just carry, but instead he goes ahead with the plan and tips the ball on to me and I don’t really want it, so I drop the ball. I mean its poor skill from me I should still take it. Because I expected something different, its resulted in a mistake.”
			Time (18)	“That whole time I was assessing the options that were available. Where we need to press, who’s inside me, I think we were out of backs as I only had forward inside me so this changed the way I defended, as I was a lot more passive to give these guys time
UNI	No thought	Actions-for the game (37)	Reaction (33)	“Erm, because I didn’t see him, so I just turned and he was there so I just hit him. He had the ball so, that was my instinctive response in defence.”
			Rehearsal (4)	“It’s like if I’m one on one 90% of the time I’ll go off my left foot because 90% of the time I’m looking like I’m going to go in the other direction, so the defender just turns. Is that cause you’re better off your left foot. Yes, definitely I know that. I just spend all my time getting people to go that way so I’ll just go the other way.”
PRO	No thought	Actions-for the game (57)	Reaction (52)	“No thought, he fumbled it, then it just kind of happened. I had no idea what he was going to do because he’d fumbled it, so I just shifted it away straight away.”
			Rehearsal (5)	“That’s just me following my process – we’ve rehearsed where he should be so I just throw it.”
UNI	Fast thought	Actions-for the game (55)	Self-awareness (12)	“Well there was either two options there for me, carry or pass. I seen that winger back so I gave it, it wasn’t pre-planned or anything.”
			Intentions (41)	“You see that they’re setting up for the pick and go, then you’re just waiting for them to move. You know what you have to do and you’re just responding to their body position. Just waiting for them, which triggers the reaction.”
			Misjudgements (2)	“He did a really good job and he didn’t bite in, so I tried to take the outside centre on the outside and as I seen him bite in I tried to release the ball out the back and the ball got ripped off me.”
PRO	Fast thought	Actions-for the game (83)	Self-awareness (27)	“I know I’m not the best jackler and I know I’m not the best at counter rucking, so the more time spent driving the player back the more opportunity to slow the ball down.”
			Intentions (46)	“When I do hit the ground I’m thinking ‘second movement’ as I have to ensure I get the ball back cleanly, this is something that I just have to do.”
			Misjudgements (10)	“We need a few more men, the ball came out messey, and whilst the ball was in the air I decided to go for it rather than cover on the outside. Went in for the ball tried to be smart and absolutely pinged it up and forward.”
UNI	Slow thought	Actions-for the game (26)	Self-awareness (9)	“Again I think I had quite a bit of time to think about it. Because they were passing wide I just had to keep going off them. I always back myself, like show them the outside and execute the tackle basically.”
			Awareness of teammates capabilities (2)	“Even though their winger was relatively quick he broke the line and **** sort of was in behind and he was shouting at me I’ve got it I’ve got it so I sort of stepped out the way and then as he missed him went for him, so my process was quite slow as I could hear **** saying he had the player.”
			Intentions (15)	“It was more or less the first couple of minutes of the game so for me I’m thinking I need to get that tackle I need to get that first hit in so if I do that I can get into the game pretty well.”
PRO	Slow thought	Actions-for the game (40)	Self-awareness (20)	“I know I’m getting the ball. Had time to think about the pump of the ball, create myself some space and then drive.”
			Intentions (20)	“I’m constantly feeling what our hips and shoulder connections are like, when I call the seconds in where they are so they’re in good positions most of the time it’s fine, if they’re not I’ll ask the referee to blow it up and reset.”
UNI	Fast thought	Knowledge-of the game (22)	Opponent (3)	“From watching their game film before this game, I knew that they liked to go quickly on their five man set up. So we decided before the game to line up slightly in front of their jumpers.”
			Roles & Responsibilities (7)	“In terms of when we’re coming round the corner of the ruck, we set up in guard, 9, 1, on defence I’m just then waiting for them to come into my channel. I should have come up there but I’m just waiting to see if that’s switch happens. Once I see that they’re getting the ball then my brain jogs and I’m reacting.”
			Self-awareness (1)	“I go through the same process at every ruck, first thing I do is find out what’s happening, find out where the ten is, where the forward are, first thing that goes into my head is what are we doing? The two three forward there hitting hard and then who’s going to be out the back. Some people like looking at the gaps first but I also think, by the time you get there they’re going to have closed that. As my hands go on the ball then, I have a look at the gap available and then I go for it or the pass.”
			Tactics (11)	“Once we get to the edge, we tank back in. We do it all the time in training so it’s just a rehearsed rule we play too.”
PRO	Fast thought	Knowledge-of the game (49)	Knowledge of opponents (5)	“So, ****, their hooker, I’ve played him before – he doesn’t like scrummaging under your chest. He obviously enjoys going into the gap, so my thought process was to make it uncomfortable for him. Turn my right shoulder down and put pressure onto his neck.”
			Self-awareness (3)	“I definitely know my strengths, I know when I should and shouldn’t go for a jackal, when I’ve actually assessed the situation. If he falls on his back or exposes his body, that gives me a better opportunity to go for the ball.”
			Knowledge of teammates (2)	“He’s a very good offloader, so I knew that his first instinct would be to give the ball so I jumped at the chance haha.”
			Roles & Responsibilities (19)	“Here I saw they had got quite far along at the point of contact, so I had to call two round the corner to defend. I think this call is because we do a lot of it in training and we’ve had numerous bollocking’s over it as well about being early. I think like we made it so clear, my coach said you might be calling them but they can’t see it, so be really dramatic about it, wave your arms, pull them and I knew as well that because they were so far along that we’d definitely need two because their attack had cut off most of the pack. We have a clear policy of make the space for them to fill it.”
			Tactics (20)	“I was in position and I know our strategy there is to hit the middle man, he’ll either carry and give a tip to me and in this instance I’ll just clear that ruck there. Unless we’ve hit a guy that we usually wouldn’t hit or they tip it on. Normally, so if there’s 3 this guy clears the outside and this guy clears the inside so if it changes that’s when we have to make the decision to adapt.”
UNI	Slow thought	Knowledge-of the game (83)	Knowledge of opponents (4)	“Because from the preview of the game I knew where they tend to give up space defensively in the lineout so I knew where we wanted to attack.”
			Roles & Responsibilities (30)	“Just because of time, defensive structure, wedge, on the inside of defence, kind of know where they’re going and the tackle I need to make.”
			Self-awareness (10)	“I heard the tank call, so I had time to look up and see what I’d run. I was always going to run there, I hardly ever do look for options, I just go unless there’s a call for a tip, but yeah when I do get the ball I’m pretty tunnel vision like.”
			Tactics (34)	“Game plan related one, we’re close to our own line – the decision was to exit so got some blockers in and I knew I was hitting **** so, despite it being at a bad angle.”
			Teammates (5)	Well I can see he’s got the ball and I’m kind of deciding when to make the tackle or him to make the tackle I’m talking to **** on the outside telling him to wedge so I’m making the decision as it unfolds. It gives me more time to weigh up the situation and make a tackle rather than if I fly into that there’s a risk of it coming off bad.
PRO	Slow thought	Knowledge-of the game (88)	Knowledge of opponent (9)	“We identified him as a threat as he got three turnovers in the previous fixture so. It wasn’t something we’d prepped as a team, it was something I’d noticed from watching the video, like everyone will know we’ve got to watch him cause he’s going to cause us some trouble if we don’t look after him. It just became a thought process of if he’s there just smack him and get him away.”
			Roles & responsibilities (38)	“At 99% of mauls my role is to get the ball at the back, so there’s no thought process its just my job. Then it just becomes slow thought based on my feel of how the mauls progressing, is my binding tight, are we low enough, is the ball on the right hip, it becomes a check and challenge because you’ve got the time to do it.”
			Self-awareness (5)	“It’s just the time I’ve got to set up, I’m at the back here and we’re further up the pitch so I’m not expecting it at the front. Then it’s a case of connecting with the line, I got caught on this last week as I was too far ahead, it was definitely a mistake I was aware of this week and It was definitely conscious as I made my decision.”
			Tactics (30)	“Slow thought, same premise really it’s a set move, we both know that we’re running hard at the line, all I’m reacting to is catching the ball, but I know that I’m running that line and picking that hole on that side of the defender because I have time to. The catch is more the skill than the decision.”
			Teammates (6)	“Knowing that I’ve got **** and **** chasing with me allows me to go at their pace and knowing all the time that we can put pressure on him and contain what we can.”
UNI	Fast thought	Knowledge-in the game (85)	Change in expectations (57)	“Again similar as before, it was the other man’s tackle but he’s stepped into my way, so just reacted to that.”
			Game context (14)	“Erm, I think I’ve made a bit of a mistake there as I’ve got passed him and he’s just stepped in and I’ve just reacted to almost a panic tackle to get him down. That was probably happening a bit quicker and like a said probably a bit of panic. The context of the game as well as they were coming back into it as well.”
			Risk/Threat (14)	“Just so he couldn’t get up and go again, cause if I don’t go in there he’s just going to get up and keep going, but if I put a knee on him I kind of I just stop him and get back out.”
PRO	Fast thought	Knowledge-in the game (86)	Changes in expectations (46)	“As we’re coming round the corner here, I’m not expecting him to be tackled, so I quickly thought ‘right I’m going to hit this as hard as I can’.”
			Game context (15)	“I think we turned it over so, for them they were set and ready to attack so all I knew was I had to get into the midfield and get it out to the wing and we’ll probably get some decent metres on the edge.”
			Risk/Threat (25)	“But then because my teammates get’s hit and turned there’s a threat of the ball being turned over. So, then I became conscious that I had to identify the threat and deal with the threat quickly.”
UNI	Slow thought	Knowledge-in the game (18)	Change in expectations (9)	“Well I had time to think, so it was like I caught the ball quite didn’t catch the ball very well as it was kind of behind me and then it was just kind of flat D on us.”
			Game context (3)	“I simply saw a man that I thought I could beat. It was raining, the ball was really greasy and wanted to hold onto it.”
			Risk/Threat (6)	“He was a little bit of a threat, it was his first carry so and my first tackle, first involvement didn’t want to fly out the line. Didn’t want to try and put in a big shot and end up on my arse if you know what I mean. He only had one or two outside, there was definitely one outside.”
PRO	Slow thought	Knowledge-in the game (42)	Change in expectations (10)	“I suddenly realised that I was too far ahead of the defensive line and realistically I should be a metre of so deeper so I’m more connected in the line. Once that pass happens, I know I need to get back and make that tackle.”
			Game context (22)	“Again this was a case of awareness on the field. I’m not wanting to take the ball to get personal glory out of what is a no win situation so told him to carry again, and knew I had to hit that ruck as it’s the wide ruck and the wingers always in it.”
			Risk/Threat (10)	“So I knew from looking in front of me that that’s a back, so I’m talking to the man outside of me telling him to stay with us, because if he has a crack at me he’ll probably do me for pace.”
UNI	No thought	Common frame of reference (1)	Common language (1)	“Erm the called a hippo shadow but he came up very quickly so I had to sort of, I didn’t even see him until the last second and then I just flicked it on. Just saw and acted really.”
PRO	No thought	Common frame of reference (6)	Common language (2)	“That’s just simply getting the ball away from the point of contact, in other words ‘get a shift on’. Not thinking really, we have what we call a ‘two pass policy’ on turnover to try and get the ball away from where they’re heavily populating the pitch.”
			Tactical rules (4)	“I hit the ruck on autopilot”
UNI	Fast thought	Common frame of reference (46)	Tactical rules (27)	“That’s a fast thought, if 9 doesn’t go in we tank, if 9 does go in we power, but we have said that that is something we could do differently. So if 9 goes in we could pass off the base, just a little short one to get outside the tight guys. That’s what we prepare for in training all the time, so there isn’t much thought that goes into it.”
			Common language (15)	“It was a pre-call pat hit. Because **** should be an option, but once I make the break I look outside straight away, so that’s my initial thought on the pass.”
			General communication (4)	“**** told me just to carry so I just carried, it spilled out the scrum so I just thought set a phase we can go again.”
PRO	Fast thought	Common frame of reference (89)	Tactical rule (50)	“We have a tackler + 1 rule, always two in the tackle, because he did step on the inside, my next thought was just to whack him and try and knock him back.”
			Common language (29)	“At the time, **** had called two, with his fingers in the air, which meant they wanted two players to fold round the corner so I knew I had to get to ‘20’ and I was telling my man on my inside that he was at ten. Then they know that my next job and role is to watch the 9”
			General communication (10)	“I called for the offload here of **** rightly or wrongly”
UNI	Slow thought	Common frame of reference (92)	Common language (38)	“Slow thought on that one, my positioning is dictating where he’s going to run, which gives me time to select which tackle I’m going to make and it happened in that way. It wasn’t like I’d just got up to make a tackle. We were in a wedge, didn’t mind about the space we conceded just making the tackle. He was a little bit of a threat, it was his first carry so and my first tackle, first involvement didn’t want to fly out the line. Didn’t want to try and put in a big shot and end up on my arse if you know what I mean. He only had one or two outside, there was definitely one outside.”
			General communication (6)	“When I caught the ball again, if I remember there were a lot of players calling outside me shouting that I had time on the ball, perhaps I could have given that wide instead of trucking it up the middle myself.”
			Tactical rules (48)	“I’m not reacting to anything, I know we’re in midfield on the half way and really that’s a game plan type thing it’s like we’re on the half way they’ve got a good defensive line so, what’s the point in attacking them from here when we haven’t really got any momentum, had a blocker in so it was like **** was ready for it, tank was set up so just went through the process for my box kick.”
PRO	Slow thought	Common frame of reference (111)	Common language (44)	“Here, ‘pepsi’ was called, which was our call for a box kick, which meant we migrated to width and plugged any gaps so our kick chase was effective as possible. Just becomes habitual.”
			General communication (9)	“I’m talking to him again, telling him to carry I know that if I carry it I could be pushed into touch.”
			Tactical rules (58)	“The ball in that situation is pre-programmed to go to him and we had spoken about me taking a tip on to give us more width before that phase unfolded as we noticed they were quite spaced apart in their defensive line.”

The **** denotes names and terms that have been removed for confidentiality and anonymity.