How data has revolutionized the life of the XV of France

• XV of France After its success against Australia and South Africa, the XV of France faces Japan, Sunday at 2 p.m. in Toulouse, for the last test match of its autumn tour.

• For three years, the staff has indeed built with the help of the company SAS France a gigantic database which can provide all kinds of information in its approach to the match.

• For three years, the staff has indeed built with the help of the company SAS France a gigantic database which can provide all kinds of information in its approach to the match. 

We knew “the moral pact”, “the path” or even “the arrow of time”.

It is time to make room in the lexicon of the XV of France for "data scientists" and "requests".

After three years of work and on the strength of a high-flying year 2022 (grand slam in the VI Nations, victories over Australia and South Africa), the staff of the Blues lifted the veil this week (finally, in part) on one of the secrets of its success: the use of data to prepare for the training sessions of the week and the matches to come.

The beginnings of this "technological battle plan", as the Federation describes it, are to be found in Fabien Galthié's very personal appetite for what is called "analytics", that is to say everything what technology can offer to improve performance in the field, and in his meeting with the Managing Director of SAS France.

This company is one of the world leaders in the field of artificial intelligence, which it puts at the service of companies specializing in fields as diverse as health, the environment or intelligence.

After 46 years of existence, it is now immersed in the world of high-level sport.

"We discussed, Fabien tested things, and then when it was shown that we could bring real added value for the preparation of matches and performance, we went all out", says the GM in question Jean -François Sebastian, present in Marcoussis on Wednesday to participate in the formalization of the partnership with the Fédé.

Fabien Galthié completes:

Data analysis has been a decision-making tool in the business world for twenty, thirty years.

We thought about how to integrate it into our home.

We wanted to answer these simple questions: How to train better to be better in matches on Saturday?

How are we going to beat our next opponent?

What did the teams that beat him do, and what do the teams that didn't beat him do?

»

To realize the extent of the data processed, let's take the example of the key, chosen by Galthié and SAS to practice.

The company has established a history of 1,438 matches since 2019 (Top 14, U20, internationals, including 36 Blues matches), from which it has analyzed and listed everything: sidelines, release speed, position of players, throw distance, etc.

The results make it possible to better target each person's strengths and weaknesses and therefore to think about specific training exercises.

They also offer the possibility of knowing what to expect in the next game.

A tailor-made search engine for the XV

This trial run has whetted the coach's appetite.

“We started thinking about everything, without forbidding anything.

This pushed us very far in the field of possibilities,” he explains.

All other game areas were then added.

Each individual action (a pass, a tackle, a kick, a support in a ruck) and collective (a touch, a scrum) is coded, and in each match, millions and millions of information enter in the system.

They come in addition to the GPS data collected for a long time already for the follow-up of the players, and also feed a database which will help to better identify the adversaries.

Operated using a unique platform, tailor-made by SAS for the FFR, it works like a search engine, in which the staff can enter queries.

The degree of precision of the searches is potentially quite insane.

Example delivered by Nicolas Buffa, the director of the analysis unit, in the

podcast of our colleagues from

– and which we invite you to listen to if the subject interests you.

The staff wants information on the dismissals at the foot of the Australian team, they type "Australia dismissals", then they can add filters to refine: who types the dismissal, from which zone, at what moment of the match, at home or away, in a match won or lost, when the team is leading or trailing…

One or two info at the exit

“We wanted a tool that was

, that we could ask all sorts of questions and cross-reference all sorts of information.

You just have to learn to use it, to dig”, explains the same Nicolas Buffa, this time in Marcoussis, with a small smile in front of our interrogative faces in the face of the gigantism of the device.

The whole art of the analysis unit, which today includes nine full-time people including data scientist Jérémy Cheradame, is to extract from this mass of data one or two essential pieces of information to share with the coaches, who will then draw up the plan. game and discuss it with the players.

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For the meeting against South Africa last Saturday in Marseille, an important factor was the difference in international experience between the two teams, largely unfavorable to the Blues (12 points against 24, according to a reference system bringing together several criteria).

In the last minutes, with the changes made and Antoine Dupont's red card, the ratio was even 7.4 against just under 24.

“Thanks to the data, we knew that that [the collective experience] we would not have, so we were looking for other performance factors, deciphers Galthié.

We had targeted three criteria which, if we managed to combine them, would take us close to victory.

We knew that this South African team, when it loses, it's because its opponent leads it to play in these areas, in this way, at this tempo.

And we succeeded.

»

Clutch against the Blacks

Even more speaking, the France-New Zealand of November 2021. The story is told by Nicolas Buffa and his colleague Manu Urdampilleta in the podcast.

It all started with a request from Fabien Galthié in the famous search engine, “difference between the teams that beat the Blacks and the teams that lost against the Blacks”.

We don't do more basic, but we still had to think about it.

“After two days of work, we managed to get information out which was decisive in winning this match, reveal the two men.

It was a data on the duration of possession of the opponent's ball.

In summary, the teams beaten by the Blacks kept the ball for too long, and ended up exposing themselves on turnovers.

The analysts have found from how many rucks and time of possession it was necessary to stop exposing themselves and dispossess themselves of the ball.

The Blues had won this match 40-25, the first success against the Harlem Globetrotters of rugby for more than ten years, with the added bonus of the biggest point difference in their favor in history.

“We felt like we had found an important element, and to see that confirmed in the match is really great, describes Urdampilleta.

It doesn't happen all the time does it!

To feed their thinking and develop their skills, the members of the analysis unit regularly exchange views with the staffs of the French teams in other collective sports, in particular basketball, handball, and, since one and a half, football.

They will even visit clubs, in England (Arsenal for example last May), in Germany, in Spain, to see what is done there.

Trade secret

On the rugby side, progress is on the move, always.

In this month of November, the XV of France was able to test a new toy, the connected ball.

It allows to calculate the speed of flight and rotation, the phases of acceleration and deceleration, the time it spends in the air.

Enough to further expand the sprawling database.

“We are in the process of appropriating this technology, which will be integrated into the analysis of performance, indicates Julien Piscione, head of the performance support department.

We are also working on the connected mouthguard, to better understand the combat dimension.

It's an interesting way because there will be links between the technical skills of the players and their ability to understand contact.

“Late a few years ago, the XV of France is now at the forefront.

We will not know much more for the moment.

All these datas obviously confine themselves to industrial secrecy.

Question of competitive advantage over the rest of the world.

On the other hand, there is a real division at the national level, especially in view of the World Cup.

“We managed to pool the technology for all the professional clubs to ensure that all the GPS data from the training of international players goes back to a central level, explains Julien Piscione.

Whether the player is at Marcoussis or at his club, we know what he does on a daily basis.

»

"Numbers don't drive us"

What help Fabien Galthié even more to make his decisions.

Because that is the ultimate goal of this ongoing technological revolution: to provide as much information as possible to the coach, who is ultimately responsible for setting the whole thing to music with his expertise.

If you doubted it, the person concerned wanted to finish his intervention on this point on Wednesday.

“The numbers don't drive us, we drive the numbers.

They help us to be smarter, to better search for strategic preparation choices.

But it is we who have the upper hand, he asserts.

During the match, I am not connected to anything.

There is not one number that impacts me when I make my changes.

I look, I listen, I am at the heart of the environment.

We make our decisions based on intuition and know-how.

Our intelligence always takes precedence, aided by fantastic tools.

» We could not have imagined a more « Galthian » reflection to finish.

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• Rugby

• Sport

• XV of France

• Fabien Galthie

• Data