Rugby

Paul O’Connell outlines how cutting edge tech is helping Ireland’s preparations

New 5G Mobile Private Network a significant step forward for players and coaches alike within Andy Farrell’s international set-up

Coach Paul O'Connell, IRFU head of analytics and innovation Vinny Hammond and player Jack Crowley, look over the shoulders of performance analysts John Buckley and Alan Walsh, in the Vodafone 5G Connected Van housing the 5G Mobile Private Network (MPN) Technology, which gathers and processes advanced data, combined with multiple view, high definition, real-time video to provide analysis of training sessions, enabling enhanced decision-making by the staff and players. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

Daire Walsh
Thu Aug 17 2023 - 06:01

Ahead of the visit of arch rivals England to the Aviva Stadium this Saturday for a World Cup warm-up encounter, Ireland forwards coach Paul O’Connell has outlined the important role Vodafone’s cutting-edge 5G Mobile Private Network (MPN) technology is playing in their preparations.

Having previously relied on third party best-effort connectivity (in the form of standard wifi) across stadiums and training facilities both home and away, this MPN technology represents a significant step forward for players and coaches alike within Andy Farrell’s international set-up. Provided in partnership with Ericsson and installed at the union’s High Performance Centre, it delivers real-time video analytics – thanks in no small part to the presence of eight high-resolution video streams that are captured by multiple cameras and a 5G connected drone.

Real-time feedback between coaches, analysts and players has also been made possible as a result of the technology’s deployment and this is something O’Connell spoke about extensively during a demonstration at the HPC yesterday.

With England set to provide a major litmus test for Ireland in South Dublin this weekend – the final game they will play on Irish soil before the World Cup in France – the MPN is an ideal tool for O’Connell and his fellow coaches to have at their disposal.

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We’ve solved the real world problem, but we’ve also started probably a little bit of a journey

“Probably the first coach who really used this was John Fogarty. He uses it for his scrum stuff on Monday. We’ll do set-ups in the scrum, they’ll engage against one another. Then they walk to a TV, there’s a 30-second delay and they watch that scrum. Then they come back and they feed back to the coach on what they did well and what they didn’t do well. Who was aligned and who wasn’t aligned,” O’Connell explained.

“Now we’re bringing that out on to the pitch from scrum into general play. When you see something that happens, you can just go to one of the coaches with the mic and you can say ‘can you cut that last ruck for me’.

“It’s actually something that, as coaches, we need to get better at using it. It’s such new technology, but the opportunities that it gives us are incredible. We have a lot of review meetings and Andy speaks a lot about trying to find a way. He doesn’t want long meetings, he doesn’t want a lot of meetings.

“This is a great opportunity for us to find a way to have a quick review. A quick little meeting, a quick chat. Fix something on the run and then get back out on the pitch. See how it works.”

As the IRFU’s Head of Analytics and Innovation (and a regular presence beside Farrell in the coaching box on match days), Vinny Hammond has a crucial part to play in ensuring this technology runs smoothly at the team’s training base in Abbotstown. Working alongside his fellow analysts Alan Walsh, John Buckley and Jack Hannon, he is excited about what this could ultimately mean for Irish rugby in future months and years.

Vinny Hammond: 'Ot’s in the training grounds that we have a real opportunity to make changes.' Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

“We did have a problem in that we couldn’t do what we can do now. We’ve solved something and Vodafone, and Surecom and Ericsson, have helped us with that.

“We’ve solved the real world problem, but we’ve also started probably a little bit of a journey. It’s kind of exciting because we don’t really know what is possible now in a years’ time or 18 months’ time. This is the foundation of it.”

While this MPN technology is currently operating out of the High Performance Centre, it will also be on-site during Ireland’s stay at the World Cup. It is set to be brought over to France in a bespoke 5G Connected Van, well in advance of the squad’s estimated five-week stay at their chosen training base in Tours.

It will also follow the team to Paris at a later date, although how long it resides in the French capital will of course depend on how far into the tournament Ireland progresses.

The van will remain at their training grounds throughout, however, and won’t be located in the stadiums that Ireland are set to play in at the World Cup. Yet this isn’t something that Hammond is overly concerned about, particularly as this Irish set-up is keen to avoid an overreliance on technology.

“The truck doesn’t go into the stadium. The stadiums are okay, it’s in the training grounds that we have a real opportunity to make changes. People will say ‘oh, it’s just technology’, but we always try to keep the technology so that it’s not a burden,” Hammon added.

“The more seamless it is, it just works away in the background. We only use it when we need it. It’s not like we have a load of toys and we lash them out whenever we can!”

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