The assessment of neuromuscular performance responses to in-season sRPE internal load in professional rugby union players, during an 8-week period, using cost-effectivemeans. Rugby union athletes are consistently exposed to high levels of physiological and mechanical stress through weekly training and competition. Monitoring practices employed by clubs in-season aim to quantify these demands by assessing athlete performance responses. Technologies used to quantify athlete readiness and physical state represent a financial burden to clubs with lower budgets. The purpose of this study was to identify cost-effective means to quantify and assess athlete physical performance responses to in-season training and competition demands. Weekly training and competition load for the 8-week in-season period was quantified using the sRPE (AU) method (2456 +/- 338). Athlete neuromuscular performance monitoring for the study period was performed using peak concentric jump velocity (m/s) in a CMJ quantified using a "PUSH" band (3.0773 +/- 0.11 m/s). Subjects were drawn from a professional rugby union team in the 2nd tier of professional rugby in England (23.1 +/- 1.8 years). To examine the change in jump performance from week to week a repeated measures ANOVA of peak concentric jump velocity was performed. To examine the interaction between load (AU) and jump performance (m/s) a correlational matrix was used. While no statistically significant results were found forchanges in CMJ performance and the interaction of CMJ performance and weekly load, the PUSH band 2.0 did detect changes in CMJ performance during the study period and were sensitive to changes in load. The use of the PUSH band 2.0 to assess lower limb neuromuscular performance in professional rugby union athletes offers a reliable and potentially cost-effective measure to track athlete performances responses in season with potential sensitivity to detect responses to load adjustments.
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