This project is embedded with Ospreys Rugby and part-funded by EPSRC (Industrial CASE) and involves the use of many streams of training and match data to help understand what drives successful performances in the United Rugby Championship (URC). The ultimate aim of the project is to quantify how match performance indicators and training loads contribute to performance, and to establish whether these can be used to predict match outcomes. This is achieved through a range of different advanced data analytics methods, including some applied to all event data routinely recorded during matches in order to consider the importance of phases and sequences of play in greater depth, rather than considering key moments in play without the necessary context of what preceded them.
This project will help rugby practitioners to more deeply understand the important features of match play which likely contribute to points scoring and match outcomes, with the interactions between these and training information ultimately being useful to help inform the tactical, physical and logistical preparation for matches.