This should really be a question, not a command from Dick Turpin.
But the latest statement to emerge from PWR announces a link with a leading provider of statistics, Oval Insights. That will be a great help to clubs, coaches and players. Fans too may find pleasing indications of how their club is progressing. Were the impressions they gained watching the latest game borne out by Oval’s evidence?
But we have to wonder whether this is the most important news the PWR board could provide at this stage. There are intensely difficult policy issues that need urgent clarification.
Some include: reviewing the basic aims set out as PWR came into being. If professionalisation remains the ultimate target, what is the most sensible and effective path?
How does the board even out the standing of the member clubs; how does it narrow the gap in attainment, not only between the nine, but between them and the leagues below? Is that in any way possible, when a pro-game is seen as the end goal?
And a mention of a point I’ve touched on many times before: do we stick with the nine surviving clubs?
Can a tenth be found anywhere? When places were last up for grabs, clubs queued up seeking preferment.
It’s ironic to think back to the RFU’s boast of “the biggest ever financial investment in women’s club rugby” when Tyrrells obtained naming rights in 2017. Ever since then the onus for keeping heads above water has stayed firmly with the clubs.
Where the buck stops
Amy Kimber-Roberts moved from women’s senior strategy and operations manager with the RFU to a similar post with PWR. So, until a new Chief Executive is instaled, it is she who carries the main burden of plotting PWR’s path for the next decade.
It will be instructive viewing the progress of Women’s Elite Rugby (WER) in the USA. There the organisers are starting almost from scratch; their only previous experience has been with the entirely amateur WPL. Can women’s pro-15s club or franchise rugby become a going concern?
It leaves me wondering if this tie-up with an analytics firm is the most fruitful first step.
Oval Insights
This company specialises in rugby stats. With considerable insight, they and PWR invited Alex Tessier to front the campaign. Not only was she one of the four nominees for World Player of the Year, but she claimed the No 12 shirt in the World Team of the Year. She stresses the importance of data for high-flying athletes. She mentions specifically: ‘fewer numbers, maximum impact, and richer stories.”
But a glance at the stats provided shows a plethora of numbers. It might take her a week to digest them!
In his earlier career one of the co-founders, James Tozer, used “statistics and machine learning to tell stories about all sorts of subjects, including sport.”
So the ‘in’ word is ‘stories’. And sure enough, the word occurs no fewer than three times in PWR’s report. ‘Story’ seems a long way from the analytical advice Oval’s evidence can bring. And it’s unfortunate that ‘telling stories’ has a secondary pejorative sense that is not intended here.
The company mentions that the new deal will also provide “cutting-edge live data for our matches on TNT Sports”, but doesn’t remind us that, as yet, only one game in four is available to a paying public per week.
PWR is rightly intent on bringing the game closer to its potential audience, which means – especially for the young and others coming to it for the first time – explaining it as lucidly as possible.
A formidable set of statistics is offered covering Round Seven. To the innocent eye, there are a number of terms that need clarification. “Tackles made’ is obvious to anyone who already knows the legal definition of a tackle. But ‘missed tackle’ is far less obvious. There are any number of circumstances where a would-be tackler fails in her task. At what point does her culpability end and the skill of the ball-carrier start?
Likewise ‘metres made’. In any old direction? Towards the opposition’s goal-line only? A straight line? A double chicane? Two steps forward, three steps back? Let GPS do the work.There is a clear definition of a ‘carry’, but it needs to be spelled out for young enthusiasts.
And they will need great patience to read right through the huge amount of information Oval Insights provides.
On balance I would say: while this new agreement is to be warmly welcomed, clubs are likely to see it as less beneficial than any steps PWR can take to ensure their financial well-being. Rugby’s funding is in turmoil worldwide.
