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Today sees the official launch of The Rugbypass Index (RPI), a comprehensive player and team ranking system that ranks players and teams based on performance and statistics.
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RugbyPass has created a next-generation rugby rating system, based on machine learning and shaped by game winning moments. The RPI is a world first for its complexity and comprehensive embrace of northern and southern hemisphere players and teams. By using in-depth data analysis, RPI determines ratings based on winning and players’ contribution to winning.
The RPI has been created in collaboration with data scientists from Dot Loves Data. Every minute of every top-level match is analysed for players’ contribution to each aspect of the match. From catching a defensive kick to making the final 2-on-1 pass to put a teammate in for a try, each moment is measured, analysed and then put towards that players overall rating.
In order to construct a meaningful rating system that is robust and transparent, the approach adopted is focused on winning. As the entities involved are professional sports people, match outcomes and the contribution to that outcome are critically important. Patel et. al. (2017) demonstrated that by constructing a team rating model composed of individual rating systems, better predictions of match outcome are obtained (13% increase in predictivity). If betting agencies are used as a proxy for public opinion, that analysis also demonstrated the combined ratings outperform head-to-head odds as a predictor of match outcome.
All major international and professional teams, as well as nearly 3,000 professional players, are ranked in the revolutionary rugby rating system which, at the time of writing, has Ardie Savea as the top ranked player, New Zealand as the top ranked international team and Leinster as the top ranked club team in the world. You can have a look at the RPI by clicking here.
