Once upon a time coaching sport was deceptively simple. Many years of experience could be distilled into a gut instinct of how best to respond in certain situations. Selection was more of an art and less of a science and you didn’t have smarty-pants analysts telling you stuff that – damn it! – you could already see with your own eyes from 50 yards away.
Pray for the old-timers because rugby’s tech era is well and truly here. Nowadays, one game spawns millions of pieces of usable data. Wearable technology attached to one player can collect information from 300 data points at a rate of 40 times per second. Skeletal tracking, microchipped balls – less painful than it sounds – and myriad other previously invisible markers are now routinely available. Farewell, then, leaky Biros and old‑school clipboards.
Having also previously worked at Leinster with Dan Tobin, now England men’s strength and conditioning coach, Smith believes data is increasingly shaping the team’s selection and tactics. “Dan is incredibly detailed about what he does. What does each position and each person look like? How does what they’re doing compare to their own norm and to the norm of their own position group? Without a doubt he’ll be doing that.”
OK, but what about artificial intelligence? Is “robot rugby” just over the horizon, with coaches doomed to become mere ciphers? Smith thinks not, at least for now. “Right now, AI’s role for us is less about interpretation and more about automation. Making video analysis happen faster, for example. I don’t think coaches have anything to worry about at this point in time.” What about us journos? “You guys might be at risk a little bit more.”
Harsh but fair. More seriously, Smith thinks far-reaching medical decisions should still be made by human beings, but is convinced technology has an even bigger player welfare role to play, either by identifying ways to make the game safer or by developing better protective gear. “We just need to keep innovation moving on the player welfare side as fast as we’re also building it for entertainment.”
Whatever you think about this Big Brother impact on sporting romance, the technology is here to stay. Smith reckons rising athleticism across the board – “We are so lucky as consumers to have the quality we now see in every league” – is one of the many new age positives. So is modern sport now an art or a science? In Silicon Valley it is not even a contest.
This is an extract taken from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To sign up, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
