Although rugby is a sport not nearly as affected by technological advances as many others, there have been various changes over the last couple of years that have influenced the way the game is played.
One of the main influences has been the introduction of a television match official, which has been more recent and to a lesser extent than in many other sports. Only the referee can call for input from the television match official, who is not allowed to provide input unless asked. He can also not be called upon by the competing teams to review a decision made by the referee.
In fact, the only cases where the official may be called upon it if the referee requires assistance in making a call on the scoring of a try or a kick at goal. There have; however, been moves afoot to increase the reach of the official, especially as spectators now have the benefit of replays that the referee is not allowed to consider in making a call.
However, a much bigger impact has been felt due to the availability of information after the game, with coaches basing their tactics around video analysis of a match.
“You can sit down and break down every single phase of the play, every aspect, every player, every scrummage, every line-out, every tackle, every ruck, every maul, and that information is available within an hour after the game,” said Richard Adams.
This allows coaches to build up a profile of the opposing team, analyse their strengths and weaknesses and build up a game plan accordingly.
“We can have a look and see just what people are doing. Are they missing tackles on the left hand side as opposed to the right hand side? That sort of data is absolutely invaluable, because if you come up against these top class players, if they do have a weakness is comes up very quickly and it comes up in a pattern and you can see it all the way down the line,” said Mr. Adams.
With this abundance of information available, teams now have teams of analysts who sift through the data in order to provide the coaching staff with relevant information, which then goes into building a game plan.
The careful analysis that goes into a game has also had an impact on what happens in the locker room during half time.
“The half time speeches of ‘ra, ra, let’s go’ is all gone and it’s been replaced with ‘listen, we need to go to the right of this, we need to go to the left of that, we need to go straight through here, let’s put this one over the top because the wings and the fullback aren’t quite in position’ and it’s become very, very technical,” said Mr. Adams.
Of course, teams also use the technology to analyse weaknesses in their own play and address those in training. This means that even with all the technology at their disposal, teams still face an opponent that has had time to make changes to their play since their last game. This is especially true in the latter stages of the tournament, where teams will have a week between games.
Yet the biggest controversy caused by technology is usually reserved for the tournament ball, with players often finding the tournament ball handles differently from what they are used to. Expect a couple of out of sorts kickers to again claim that the ball made them do it.
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