TABLE 4.

UNI and PRO Players verbalisations of decision making processes in response to specific game situations.

Game Situation	Decision Classification	Meaningful Unit(s)	Raw Data Examples
Lineout	Slow-thought & Fast-thought	Common language Tactics & Tactical rules Defensive pictures Time	“Queen was my only real option, because my original call was a front ball. On the six-man spread, Jack is slow at the front cause we have to step to and they have a pod set ready. I think a lot of these judgements are just drawn from previous games, having tried this before. Like I could go check out Jack on a six man, even if they’re set and we’re taller they don’t have to move anywhere, they can just go straight up if they’re patient.” (UNI Player 8, Game 2). “That was more of a fast thought. Because we were going to go with a lineout call, but **** see’s that one of the check outs was on so, every lineout we go in we’ll go in with what we call a ‘movement call’ and then if **** call’s check we all go to that movement.” (PRO Player 3, Game 1) “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.” (UNI Player 8, Game 1). “This one is slow thought because it’s a lineout call. I’ve got time to think through the process and think about how they’re setting up and which of our calls are likely to work best. Lineout calling is like a game within a game, in that I’ll look at their game video in the week leading up to the game and see how they defend. Then I know what options I want to use, off the back of that each line out then goes onto the next. So we’ve used this lineout and its worked well, then I know that they’re following the dummy pod back – so that will set me up for another one. So you use one to set up another one and so on and so forth. I’d liken it to a game of chess almost. (PRO Player 7, Game 1) “But then I saw that they’d set up 3-1-3 defensively almost, so that they have the people there to sack it right away but in the middle on our queen ball they only had one person and they’d already disrupted our maul throughout the game already so I decided to go for the queen ball because they only had one person to stop us, meaning it was more likely for us to get some go forward.” (UNI Player 8, Game 2). “Pre-called it, we walked in and from the way they’d set up, there was no check outs on. When I walk into the lineout with my hand up it’s a signal to the hooker that I’m going to call now. Our trigger for the movement is me to call ‘check’. They’d know that If I said it, then they would know that the ball wasn’t coming to me. When I put my hand up, then the hooker knows, or people know that we’re checking out.” (PRO Player 7, Game 2). “So I had time to assess the options, there was no rush and no need for tempo. That was basically the game plan, we knew what we wanted to do and where we wanted to attack going in and the option was there on that occasion so.” (UNI Player 8, Game 1). “I’ve got time to think about it. As I said on the last one, the reason why, I’ve bumped him back and gone in behind them. It’s a case of working out what they’re doing and almost predicting what we’ve seen of them on video from recent weeks. In this game we had to get to trusting what we were doing, the fact that it was personnel messing up, i.e., a not straight, gives you confidence – it’s not like your calling is wrong, like where you’re expecting it to be on and then its not.” (PRO Player 7, Game 1)
Scrum	Slow thought	Haptic Tactics & Tactical rules Common language	“On this one we were quite well set, but we don’t win the hit, so we’re in good shape and we’ve got good pressure but because we don’t get through it was a bit of a struggle. So their lose head steps back and their tight head steps up and then we had that whip in the scrum.” (PRO Player 3, Game 2) “I just go through my processes, based on how it feels, If I feel dominant I’ll look to be aggressive, if not I’m a bit more reactive.” (UNI Player 6, Game 1) “It almost goes a bit like a checklist, so when you go down on crouch you go for your bind, I’m always looking to win that, that way you’ve got him sitting on his heals. Then I’m looking to crash through the marks, win the race across the gap and get that 1, 2. Lock the scrum down and put him in bad shape. We spend a long time prepping them through video footage, so **** will step out and he’s got a negative bind so my intentions were to clamp him down so he couldn’t get his arm up, so he was already in a bad position. (PRO Player 5, Game 1) “It’s a slow thought here, we get the free kick at the scrum and **** asks us whether we fancy a scrum, so we go for a pen. Our call is ‘Argie’ which is all out attack at the scrum and we get a penalty.” (PRO Player 5, Game 2).
Defensive situations	Slow thought	Offensive pictures, Tactical rules, Roles & responsibilities, Common language.	“I hesitated here, as I knew that if he didn’t get the ball as the first threat I needed to push off if they hit the guy out of the back. They were doing this quite a bit and they would block you with that lead runner. I was consciously thinking to chop my feet, so I could quickly react if they went out the back and thinking just don’t engage him because that will leave a gap. I’ve got to stay on him on the hard line and then the man out of the back which we call a ‘gun’. But what they were doing well was that the two front line runners would bump you in the defensive line so you couldn’t then get to the man with the ball out the back. If they’re just carrying the ball and there’s no passing option or threat then you don’t need to think about it. But when there’s a gun option I have to wait, I can’t just hit, if he pulls it out the back I’ve got to get passed the tip option who’s trying to block me and then get to him – which is probably why I miss the tackle. (UNI Player 8, Game 2) “Probably quite a bit slower than the others, again because I’ve got to defend the forward, defend the lead which is the hard line and runner coming through, then I have to get to the shadow, which is the running line out the back. Then as soon as the guy out the back passes, then I’ve just got to stay high on the inside. Ideally, if I could stop that play there and then I’d do it but because they played it quite well I knew immediately that I wouldn’t be able to do that. So I looked after him, then had to go and help my man outside of me. What got me was the amount of decisions I had to make in the play, I think I was probably fast on the decisions I made but there was so many decisions I had to make, I found myself recalling doing these things in training and dealing with multiple threats. For us, we always have a principle – ‘always defend the threat’. So defend the ball, if I’m the next man I have to defend him and then I push off.” (PRO player 1, Game 1). “I remember thinking that we were stressed and under pressure on the edge [space toward the touch line of the pitch] and I’ve waited on the ‘lead’ too long, tried to get out and just missed the tackle.” (PRO Player 6, Game 2) “I’m on 9 here, in guard 9, 1 and I’m telling myself the same thing, ‘don’t get beat,’ and yeah he went I wasn’t tight enough and ended up getting beaten.” (UNI Player 8, Game 1) “I have a specific job here at ‘20’ as when 9 runs I’ll shout to the inside man, and I’d hope he’d cover me better than he actually does here. So as 9 picks I know that he’s my primary focus and then I’m just pushing off, but as he didn’t pass he steps back inside. The whole time I’m in this position I’ve got a role to fulfil, pushed off a little bit as I know there is a threat on the outside, but I know that that is my primary role. I was hoping our ten would step up a little bit and plug that, which stops their 9 being able to dart like that, but in the end as he runs it’s just a decision to try and make the tackle.” (PRO Player 6, Game 2)
Offensive situations	Fast-thought	Common language, Defensive picture Tactics Change in expectations & Awareness of action capabilities	“So I had a look up thought that **** is at ten and we’re in what we’d call a lead shape, a lead shadow – which might also be called a wedge, 2/3 etc… and I made that call because of identifying the attacking personnel I had around me.” (PRO Player 1, Game 1) “I was initially looking outside me, as I thought that’s where the support would be coming from as we had pre-called that it would be a hit. 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.” (UNI Player 4, Game 2) “That’s just because with **** I’m thinking he’s going to carry here and when he got stopped I was kind of expecting the ball in an offload position, but when you actually get it I’ve got no idea where I’m going or what I’m doing so I literally just got the ball and reacted to defenders and someone bit on me which like I just went the other way and just tried to run.” (UNI Player 2, Game 2) “So here, he doesn’t get tackled as fast as I’m expecting, so my mindset changed, and changed quickly. I don’t want him to get held up so I’m just going to whack him and get him going forward, which made it easier for **** to hit the deck.” (PRO Player 3, Game 1).

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