Saturday’s victory for Ireland over Wales in the RBS 6 Nations had the country abuzz with thoughts of a triple crown decider against England in two weeks and maybe more.
Brian O’Driscoll’s hit and recovery were stirring enough but the overall quality and indeed demolition of the two time reigning champions was as comprehensive as it was perhaps unexpected.
Sport for Business is a great fan of data analytics and the dominant role it will have in the future coverage and consumption of sport and we were taken by the way in which the raw data can instantly give an objective picture of what you have just seen on the pitch or on the TV screen.
Saturday’s game statistics were updated throughout the game by Accenture and broadcast live on RTE and BBC throughout the coverage. The overall match stats showed time in possession of the ball to have been equal and Wales to have won more open ball possession than the runaway winners.
It was the mistakes they made once in possession though that cost the game and while the players on the pitch will have instinctively known this was the case, the management will have been able to back it up at Half Time with an impressive array of statistical data on where the hits were hurting most.
Sport is so much about the confidence to know that what you are doing is and will be effective. Joe Schmidt and his team will have been able to lay out why the game plan was working and to give the team that confidence to go out and finish the job.
Even though Wales won the possession and territory stats in the second half it was their mistakes count that told in the end, 50 to Ireland’s 33.
In every one of the completed 6 Nations game so far the team with the fewest mistakes has been the eventual winner.
It will be heartening for the Irish team heading to Twickenham that they have conceded only 69 mistakes in the two games to date as opposed to 88 for Stuart Lancaster’s side and indeed 99 for the French team that could provide a memorable signing off on Brian O’Driscoll’s incredible career.
Little wonder that rugby coaches at the highest level spend the match behind a bank of screens and perhaps strange still that soccer has not gone the same way.
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Congratulations to Fiona Coghlan and the Irish Women’s team who completed their run of home fixtures at Ashbourne with a second win to keep their Grand Slam defence campaign alive.
They now set off on two games in a row at Twickenham and the Aviva Stadium in fitting recognition of the rise of the Women’s game. Elsewhere today we highlight two excellent article of coverage about Women’s sport from the weekend media in Ireland and England.
