‘We're All (Cauliflower) Ears’: A Delphi Study Including Staff and Players to Co-Construct Sports Science and Medicine (Performance and Wellbeing) Research Priorities for Premiership Rugby

Sports invest in research to optimise performance and enhance athlete wellbeing. Involving stakeholders allows research priorities to be determined, maximising the adoption and relevance of research findings. A three-round modified Delphi process was used to establish wellbeing and performance research priorities for Premiership Rugby (Professional men's rugby union competition in England). Up to 10 research priorities were provided during Round 1 (grouped into higher-order categories and themes via content analysis). In Rounds 2 and 3, participants ranked higher-order categories on a one to five Likert scale. Consensus was defined as ≥ 70% agreement. Sixty-five participants responded in Round 1 (41 and 32 in Rounds 2 and 3). Staff and player experience of working or playing in the Premiership was 11.0 (4.5–16.5) and 7.0 (6.0–8.5) years. Following Round 1, 393 research priorities were provided and 53 higher-order research priorities and 26 categories were identified, within three themes: performance, wellbeing and injury. Following Round 3, 21 research priorities reached consensus within performance (n = 7), wellbeing (n = 6) and injury (n = 8). Research priorities for a professional sports league, were established by the application of a pragmatic research lens, to ensure priorities were practically minded and also developed with minimal resource requirements, minimal burden for participants and in a short amount of time, which can be applied in other leagues. Research priorities deemed feasible and lacking a relevant evidence base can be addressed in future studies to maximise impact and compliment the ongoing research programmes already established by the professional league and governing body.