Ruggo’s first write up

Keo has teamed up with Ruggo, the latest coaching tool which comes in the form of a user-friendly Stats-analysis app, aimed at improving the quality of analysis resources available at low cost to schools and clubs. 

Ruggo has released their first official write up following a club training match between Oude-Skoliere and Frankfort.

Frankfort Rugbyklub – laying down a marker.

Club rugby in South Africa is a few weeks away from the start of its 2018 season, however many clubs are already playing training games. We were fortunate to catch up with one such training game in Bethlehem on Wednesday night, with the local Oud-Skoliere rugby club taking on Frankfort in a match arranged to give both squads a solid workout before the league starts.

Bethlehem Oud-skoliere in their pre-match team-talk

In this match we used the Ruggo smartphone analysis program to measure the match-performance of Frankfort, so all statistics are from their point of view. This was the first game coded for Frankfort, so all ‘season’ statistics just reflect the last match played:

As can be seen above, the second half was a bit longer than the first, as both clubs agreed to play extra time and get a bit more game-time for their squads. Frankfort won a game that was in the balance right up to the time that a Bethlehem player was yellow-carded.

What immediately stands out is Frankfort’s utter dominance of the scrum. The game had 17 scrums, 9 of which were fed by Frankfort. The men from the Wilgerivier not only secured all their feeds, but also scored 3 tightheads. In contrast, Oud-Skoliere dominated the line-outs in a similar fashion, with Frankfort only managing to secure 42.9% of their own line-out feeds. An added concern will be the mere 40% of restarts secured, with Oud-skoliere chasing their own kicks superbly.

Frankfort secured a substantial territorial advantage while also enjoying the majority of possession. A few factors however contributed to them not dominating the scoreboard as much as they would have liked:

Despite posting a respectable 82.5% tackle completion rate, Frankfort did most of their defending in their own 22 (36%), with a further 33% of all tackles made in their own 50m area. From these statistics it is clear that Frankfort did not have it all their own way, and that Oud-skoliere exerted massive pressure in the right area of the field when they did enjoy possession.

One can also infer from the above that while Oud-skoliere only had 43.4% of territory – most of it was while on attack in Frankfort’s 22. Now we suddenly understand why the scoreboard was so close despite Frankfort’s dominance of territory and possession.

Frankfort needed to handle the ball 35.5 times to score one try, which again points to a resolute Oud-Skoliere defence. It was however a pleasure witnessing this Frankfort team distribute the ball. They played wide on 12 occasions, stretching the Bethlehem defence to the limit, which created gaps on the inside for their impressive 12 to cut the line at ease. On a different night one could see Frankfort score a few more time, but credit to Oud-Skoliere, whose ‘never-say-die’ defence is to be commended this early in the season.

Finally if we study the ‘22 metre attack’s, we again spot how Oud-skoliere almost cheekily managed to set up 15 attacking platforms in Frankfort’s 22, while Frankfort could only manage to visit their opponents 22 on 9 occasions.

As is mostly the case, it’s not the quantity but the quality of territory and possession that counts. In this regard Oud-skoliere was the smarter team, kicking when they needed to and chasing well. Frankfort one felt could have varied their attack a bit more and kicked a bit more to build attacking platforms in the right areas of the field.

This was nonetheless an highly enjoyable spectre, with Frankfort’s utterly dominating scrum the highlight. We witnessed great passing, crisp interplay between forwards and backs and an overall willingness to ‘give it a crack’.

Both teams for a huddle post-match

To allow more club teams this year to capture data and improve with science, Ruggo.net n partnership with Rhino Rugby and Keo.co.za are offering all Southern African clubs a 50% discount on a year’s premium license of Ruggo mobile analysis software.

In addition, Keo will be running club logs for all teams who use Ruggo this year

Ruggo makes it possible to generate game stats using nothing but a smartphone right next to the pitch. No video footage is required, and results are available instantly:

Teams who want to register for this fantastic promotion can simply complete this form online

In addition to the Ruggo offer, Rhino South Africa chips in with this fantastic club promotion, which can be purchased directly on their web-site:

Read more about how Ruggo works