Rugby Sevens (7s) is an intermittent team sport played in a tournament schedule, with six matches performed over 2 or 3 days. During a short (~16 min) single match of 7s players perform at high running work rates (distance >100 m·min-1, high intensity running ~27 m·min-1, anaerobic index demands 40%) and are subject to transient and between-halves fatigue. Despite preliminary evidences of neuromuscular impairments and muscle damage following tournaments, players seem to maintain work rate between successive matches. However, injury risk increases progressively as a function of matches played within a tournament, thus suggesting the presence of fatigue. 7s teams use recovery strategies, such a cold water immersion (CWI), with proved to be beneficial for Rugby; however, there is a lack of consensus on their effect during the acute (<3 h) phase of recovery. Due to high between-match variability and feasibility, mechanisms and kinetics of fatigue and recovery are difficult to analyse during competitive events. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the occurrence of fatigue and assess the effects of repeated cold water immersion (CWI) during a congested simulated day of 7s.
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