What’s so special about rugby? Volunteer coaches’ perceptions of how the features unique to rugby union influence the development of life skills in players

Community sports coaches have cited the development of players’ life skills through sport as a primary motive for coaching. While coaches’ respective methods of and approaches to developing players’ life skills have been researched, factors such as the influence a specific sport’s especial rules and customs might have on this process have been neglected. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the purpose of this study was to explore what features unique to the game of rugby do five regionally-based volunteer coaches consider important in developing players’ life skills based on their lived experiences as players and coaches. Findings suggested that these coaches saw the heavy physical contact involved in rugby provided a high-risk environment which required players, individually and collectively, to develop life skills such as cooperation, resilience, empathy, supportiveness and self-control to overcome physical and emotional challenges presented by the nature of the game.