Opinion | Friday, 21st October 2022

RLWC2021: How home advantage could work for - and against - England

Dr Martin Turner looks at whether playing at home actually does provide an advantage

With the Rugby League World Cup in full swing at stadia across the country and the England team off to a flying start, psychologist Dr Martin Turner of Manchester Metropolitan University, who has worked extensively with sports teams, looks at whether playing at home actually does provide an advantage

Data suggests that there is such a thing as home advantage. When you look at match results, research has found that there was an overall statistically significant home advantage of 61% for 120 matches played in the Six Nations Rugby Union tournament (2000-07). Evidence supported a home advantage amongst all competing nations, regardless of the team's quality.

Research also indicates that one of the main reasons that home advantage exists is because of the influence of the home crowd. The greater the number of fans in the crowd, the bigger the home advantage, particularly when the crowd was dense and close to the field of play. The crowd can also influence the referees in favour of the home team. We saw that during COVID, when teams were playing ‘ghost games’ in empty stadia and a reduction (but not complete disappearance) in home advantage effects were reported, alongside less favourable refereeing decisions for the home team.

Players and teams want to engage with fans. They want to have a noisy supportive atmosphere to put pressure on the officials and on the away team when they're in possession or in a threatening position. They know they want to apply that pressure, so I think it's through supporters and fans that home advantage can really make it big difference.

If you strip away the influence of the noise of the crowd, you start to see the home advantage dissipate a little. That’s really the key mechanism through which home advantage takes place.

Being at home does also give teams some advantages in terms of familiarity, territoriality, a sense of dominance, and convenience which is always of benefit psychologically where consistency is key - particularly at an elite level. Familiar stadia, environment, climate, culture and fans - everything they are used to in the domestic season. Those are the types of things you're not having to adjust to when playing on home turf. There is also evidence that travel is important, but only when the teams need to travel through two or more time zones.

But, playing at home can also be a disadvantage because, with a stadium full of home fans, the expectations might be greater on individual players. As a psychologist, the way that I always try to work with teams is not to really think about home advantage as a phenomenon at all, but to prepare in the way that they need to for the game regardless of whether they’re home and away.

A player’s approach should be: ‘It doesn't matter whether I'm home, or away. This is the preparation that I do, these are my routines, this is the job I've got to do today and this is how I’m going to execute it.’ They should try to forget about all that extra stuff, and just try to do their job on the day.

As soon as you think home advantage means that you might do better, then there's the potential for some complacency to drift in. On the flip side, if you're playing away and you think: 'actually yeah, we're up against it because we're away’. Then again, some self-doubt is there based on nothing to do with their ability to play but based on something they can't control anyway.

So, my argument would always be focus on the things that can be controlled. It's not up to a player whether they’re home or away. Instead, they should focus on: 'What am I going to do today? What am I going to do to do my job better? How am I going to support my teammates? How am I going to rest well, hydrate and eat the right things?’. Those are all within a player’s sphere of influence, whereas whether they’re home or away really isn't.

Although the home advantage clearly plays a role, one way or another, the message to players is just to play your game. That’s what the England rugby league team need to remember.