Scottish Rugby Extends Catapult Sports Deal

Scottish Rugby has extended its supply agreement with Catapult Sports to continue tracking athlete performance, with 110 additional devices to be supplied to the international team.  

Designed to provide actionable feedback from training and games, the technology will be used by both the Scotland men’s team and national sevens team, as well as Scotland’s two professional clubs, Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors.

As part of the deal, Scottish Rugby and Catapult have agreed to enter into a ‘Research and Innovation’ relationship designed to help support the global ambition within World Rugby of improving athlete and team performance at all levels.

The arrangement also includes the installation of Catapult’s ClearSky technology, a local positioning system, at two of its training and match-day facilities, including Oriam Scotland’s Sports Performance Centre.

No financial terms were released but the investment in additional technology has been described as “significant”.

Catapult’s elite athlete tracking devices fit into a player’s sports vest and synchronise to the OpenField software platform which allows the user to analyse data in real-time and after each session. Each device contains multiple individual sensors, which collect close to 1,000 data points per second.

This information is then used to monitor athlete output, helping coaches to optimise performance, mitigate injury risk and support rehabilitation processes; three uses that combine to ensure that players are more frequently available and ready to perform at their best.

National team strength and conditioning coach, Stuart Yule, commented: “A critical determinant of rugby performance is the physical characteristics of the players. In a sport with ever increasing demands and competition, Catapult technologies provide meaningful and related information which enables continual improvement in players physical development and management. 

“It is an exciting time to partner with Catapult based on the current insight provided on the demands of rugby. Catapult’s ambition for the future of its products, demonstrated by its roadmap, will continue to push the boundaries of our understanding of our sport allowing us to remain at the cutting edge of athlete development.”

Paul Boanas, sales director at Catapult added: “Having risen into the top five in the world in recent months, it is clear that Scotland are making huge progress on the international stage and we are thrilled to be part of that development. Catapult has been leading the way in rugby technology for over 10 years, and for this to be recognised by one of the world’s best teams through a competitive tender process is testament to the team behind the scenes at Catapult.”

Catapult Sports provides technology to over 1,500 teams around the world, including Saracens, Harlequins, the British and Irish Lions, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and LA Galaxy.