title: Home advantage in southern hemisphere rugby union: national and international.
abstract: This study evaluates home advantages both for national (Super 12) and international (Tri-nations) rugby union teams from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, over the five-year period 2000 - 2004 using linear modelling. These home advantages are examined for statistical and practical significance, for variability between teams, for stability over time and for inter-correlation. These data reveal that the overall home advantage in elite rugby union has a mean of +6.7 points, and that this changes little from year to year. Closer scrutiny nevertheless reveals a high degree of variability. Different teams can and do have different home advantages, which ranges from a low of -0.7 to a high of +28.3 points in any one year. Furthermore, some team home advantages change up or down from one year to the next, by as much as -36.5 to +31.4 points at the extremes. There is no evidence that the stronger teams have the higher home advantages, or that a high home advantage leads to a superior finishing position in the competition.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, Massey University, PBag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand. h.norton@massey.ac.nz
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Morton R
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D005538:Football / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D009042:Motivation; D009520:New Zealand; D012931:Social Environment; D013019:South Africa