Angus Campbell has watched more rugby in five years than he expects to see for the rest of his life. Working for Oval Insights in an office on an industrial park outside Leeds, he and his colleagues watch live feeds of matches from around the world and categorise the action as it unfolds. Two people mark possessions, penalties, set-piece outcomes and open-play kicking, while four more follow behind, adding finer detail such as post-contact metres, tackle success and ruck duration. By the final whistle, each match has been broken down into around 2,000 individual events, with roughly 10,000 pieces of information recorded for every match in major top-tier tournaments.
All 10 Premiership sides, just over half the United Rugby Championship teams and a significant number of Top 14 clubs subscribe to Oval's Advantage database. Campbell and customer success manager Sam Kisbee help clubs make the most of it. Alex Sanderson, who oversaw one of the Premiership's biggest squad turnovers this summer with 12 new players arriving at Sale, says stats are central to finding recruits who fit the team's game model. Courtney Lawes was signed on a one-year deal partly because of his numbers in Pro D2 with Brive, and Phil Dowson used similar analysis at Northampton to plan how to replace him.
The real edge for clubs is no longer the data itself but knowing which parts matter. Oval has built a model that flags players who outperform expectations, and clubs are also seeking outside expertise. Sale have brought in an artificial intelligence company, initially to focus on injury prevention and player availability, with recruitment planned next. Northampton have drawn on the world of Formula 1, including Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu, a former rugby player who remains a fan.
Source: BBC Sport · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing