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World Rugby set to unveil brand new insights for fans at World Cup

Steven Kitshoff played a key part in South Africa's World Cup win in Yokohama over England (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

A brand new set of data insights are set to be showcased for the first time ever in international rugby this Rugby World Cup as part of the broadcast coverage for viewers at home.

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In what is looking like the most eagerly anticipated opening round of a World Cup in its history, World Rugby, alongside Capgemini and statistics provider Opta, are set to provide viewers with new insights and on-screen graphics, with the aim of providing fans with a far greater level of team analysis and improving the viewing experience. The three data insights that will be provided in-game are ‘Pitch Position Insights’, ‘Expected Points’ and ‘Momentum Tracker’.

After these insights were revealed, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Capgemini, Virginie Regis, said: “Fans expect more data-enhanced experiences from sports, and Rugby World Cup 2023 is a fantastic, global opportunity to test these new broadcast graphics.”

‘Pitch Position Insights’ help fans understand where on the pitch a team is most likely and least likely to score a try, and conversely where a team is most likely or least likely to repel a try. As a result, it is split into ‘Average Try Success Rate’ and ‘Defensive Success Rate’- a team’s chances of scoring a try in a certain position on the field before the end of possession, and a team’s chances of preventing a try.

France’s World Cup opener on Friday against the All Blacks will be a game of fine margins, and this is data will help fans gauge the chances of success either team will have in various positions. For example, France have a 34 percent chance of scoring a try from an attacking set-piece in the left corner, while the All Blacks have a 77 percent chance of defending it.

Average Try Success Rate
Defensive Success Rate
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‘Expected Points’ is a concept that some fans may be familiar with already having seen ‘XP’ or ‘XG’ in other sports. This has now been applied to rugby, where a number of points a team is expected to score from a certain position is determined using historical and real-time data. These include  the current score in the game, number of players on the field, the stage in the match, where possession originated on the pitch and pre-game score predictions.

This is split into ‘Match XP’ – the amalgamation of ‘Expected Points’ and ‘Expected Tries’ in a match – and ‘Penalty Decision XP’ – the chances a team have of converting a penalty when kicking for goal or the chances of scoring a try when kicking for touch after being awarded a penalty.

How Match XP will look compared to the score

The final insight is ‘Momentum Tracker’, which will obviously help fans see which team has the momentum in the match at a given point in time by taking into account a number of factors. These factors include the score, on-field player advantages, the time in the game, field location, team in possession, phase count and pre-game score predictions.

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How the Momentum Tracker will look

These insights will feature throughout the tournament and will be very useful from the start, with some crunch games in the opening round as England face Argentina, the reigning champions South Africa get their title defence underway against Scotland and of course France host the All Blacks.

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J
Jamo52 440 days ago

Typical marketing ploy dreamt up by the wizz kids!! We definately don't need this nonsense 😫

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JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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