Objectives To investigate the impact that the structure and combination of athlete classification within line-ups has on possession outcome in Wheelchair Rugby (WR). Design. Retrospective. Methods Analysis was conducted using data from all 18 WR matches from the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. Pearson's chi-squared analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of line-up structures on performance and a nested generalised logistic mixed model (GLMM) was fitted to the data to investigate the association between independent variables and the outcome of possessions. Specifically, the impact of offensive and defensive line-up structures on possession outcome and whether the offensive and defensive line-up structures matching or not impact possession outcome were examined. Results There was a significant relationship between the offensive line-up structure and possession outcome. Balanced line-ups had greater turnovers than expected. Balanced line-ups also had fewer tries than expected, whilst high-low line-ups had fewer than expected turnovers. There were no significant associations between the defensive line-up structure and possession outcome. Furthermore, no significant associations were found between whether the structure of the offensive and defensive line-up matched (or not) and the possession outcome. Conclusions The findings suggest that the offensive team's line-up structure plays a more prominent role in impacting possession outcome, compared to the defensive team's line-up structure. The present results provide valuable insights into WR performance for coaches, practitioners, and researchers.
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