Purpose: To investigate the impact of rugby union coaching practices on athlete outcomes including performance, wellbeing and engagement. Method: A systematic search was conducted of 10 electronic databases using the search strings (rugby*) AND (coach*). Results: Consistent across various contexts (countries, age groups, school, club, representative, professional) findings from included qualitative (n = 18) and quantitative (n = 11) studies indicated that game-based coaching approaches improve rugby player performance, with contextualized and representative training activities being particularly effective. Our findings also support that coaching behaviors, personalised relationships and autonomy impact player engagement and wellbeing. Conclusions: By applying game-based coaching approaches to instructional design and adopting recommended coaching behaviours, coaches can positively influence the performance, wellbeing and engagement of rugby players. Given the limited available studies and the risk of bias arising from the inclusion of a researcher-coach in many studies, further experimental studies across varied contexts and with more female coaches and players are required.
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