Influential Factors in the Managerial Task of Setting Objectives for Rugby Team: Important Aspects for the Rugby Manager in the Process of Plannifying the Road to Sporting Access

This paper tries to develop the sport management literature demonstrating why objectives are so important in the management of a rugby team, and by also presenting two of the factors which influence the choice of objectives for the team: the milieu and the available resources. The research insists upon the idea that a rugby team which targets sporting excellence has to follow a supreme objective – which may be seen as the mission of the team: obtaining sporting success. The rest of the objectives must be subordinated to the mission. The key person in setting the objectives is the rugby manager, who has to use the objectives as a managerial tool which to bring sporting success closer to the team. The paper insists upon the idea that, in an ideal case, objectives in a rugby team have to be set through a participative manner, with coach, players and members of the board, all together deciding what is the best for the team.