Yes, saw a post on this the other day, developed by a company call Sportable -

Believe they also used it for the RugbyX tournament a couple of years ago.

Did anyone at the Irish game notice this being used? It tells you how fast a hooker’s throw in is, what direction the ball was thrown etc. It is apparently being trialled in the Cup and according to Ben Kay and Oz if adopted should put an end to any arguments over forward passes. No mention if it can tell you if it is a try but presumably would need a laser on the lines to know if it had crossed. All very high tech.

Sounds to me like Kay and Healey have completely misunderstood what it's for, then. It's not going to be used that way. They're going to collect the data and see if it CAN be used to help with forward passes, but the smart money is on "no" for a variety of reasons.

The 'smart ball' is just for boring Americanised metrics.

Sounds to me like Kay and Healey have completely misunderstood what it's for, then. It's not going to be used that way. They're going to collect the data and see if it CAN be used to help with forward passes, but the smart money is on "no" for a variety of reasons.

The 'smart ball' is just for boring Americanised metrics.

Yes, I was under the impression that these would be used to "improve" the viewer experience, by giving us various stats in play, rather than being used as a refereeing tool. Obviously it could be used for things such as forward pass, try referrals to TMO, where did the ball cross the line for lineout, etc, but I'm not sure  how valuable that would be in practice.

I do wonder how much these new stats would add to the TV viewing experience. I appreciate they're always trying to do new things to grow the game and it seems a relatively simple, non-controversial thing to bring in. Whether it would be the key thing to causing someone to switch off the football / strictly and watch the rugby instead I don't know

Yes, I was under the impression that these would be used to "improve" the viewer experience, by giving us various stats in play, rather than being used as a refereeing tool. Obviously it could be used for things such as forward pass, try referrals to TMO, where did the ball cross the line for lineout, etc, but I'm not sure  how valuable that would be in practice.

I do wonder how much these new stats would add to the TV viewing experience. I appreciate they're always trying to do new things to grow the game and it seems a relatively simple, non-controversial thing to bring in. Whether it would be the key thing to causing someone to switch off the football / strictly and watch the rugby instead I don't know

Oh, I love stats, I was being slightly self deprecating there!

It's not going to be used for forward passes, though. They're just going to use the data to see what it looks like when passes are forward and to see if it can be used to help in future. It's not as simple as "oh we're tracking the ball now, we can always see when it goes forward" because 90% of passes go "forward" in that sense :-)

Alongside the benefits to teams and fans, the project will also be used to assess the value that the Smart Ball can add to officiating through the automatic detection of forward passes. While this won't be a fan facing activity in the first instance, the research on the forward pass could prove pivotal in informing enhancements for match officials moving forward and assist in the broader, continuing efforts to avoid long TMO delays and speed up the game.

Expect to see new insights into the kicking and passing that determines the balance of the game.

    Fastest/longest passers
    which teams play a more expansive game through longer, wider passing
    Passing trends off left and right hands
    Who are the most powerful, most accurate kickers
    Which players/teams are taking more/less risk in their clearance kicking game and gaining more territory
    Which players/teams are setting up turnover and disruption opportunities through effective hang-times on box kicks, restarts and up & unders

As someone who has to work with stats on a professional level - though I'm not a statistician - I'm painfully aware that using stats badly is very easy to do.

The Company involved with this is based at the Stonex and partnered with Sarries,Tigers,Bath and Ealing T/F


https://www.sportable.com/

Booooooooo

I wonder if some clever boffins can use electromagnetic technology buried in the try line to determine if there's been a try. Perhaps similar to the technology that stops supermarket trolleys being taken out of the car park.

I wonder if you can nobble it and make the smart technology work to stop it scoring tries or make it register forward pass when we play Sarries/Tigers? 😁
Any boffins out there?

It's not as simple as "oh we're tracking the ball now, we can always see when it goes forward" because 90% of passes go "forward" in that sense :-)

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding was that a pass is forward if its acceleration is forward, rather than if its velocity is forward. If so, then it should be relatively easy to detect a forward pass as that the ball constantly measures acceleration.