Exclusive: Scotland’s Head of Performance Analysis

Editor

Back at the start of 2017, Planet Rugby investigated the roles of analysts in the modern game.

It generated a good deal of interest and so into 2018, interspersed with the usual analysis pieces, we will be sporadically speaking with analysts working in the game and understanding what their jobs entail, how they got into analysis, and what tips they have for the next generation who may want to get into this fast moving profession.

With the Autumn International season already kicked off, we decided to speak with the newly appointed Head of Performance Analysis, and former holder of the same position at the Glasgow Warriors alongside Gregor Townsend, Gavin Vaughan.

One of Gavin’s aims for 2018 will be plotting the downfall of Wales in the Six Nations, his homeland, but before that him and his team have the unenviable task of finding a weakness in the All Blacks ahead of the game on Saturday afternoon.

We sat down with Gavin prior to the rollercoaster win against Samoa to talk about Gavin’s performance analysis story; as well as coaching, big data, virtual reality and identifying talent.

PR: Gavin, can you tell us about your own route into rugby performance analysis?

GV: I’ve come through a bit of an unorthodox route, when I was younger I started out with my village club in the Welsh leagues. Then when I went to college I was doing a Business and Tourism course but I began to develop an interest in performance analysis and went on to do some work with the Ospreys. The analyst there at the time was Damien Karauna, who is now the Japanese Sevens coach, I learnt a lot from him and then went on to work with Jason Hyatt at my local team, Tonmawr, and he gave me free reign to use the skills I learnt at the Ospreys.

I continued to work with the Ospreys whilst doing some analysis for the Welsh Premiership teams, before working with the Welsh women at U20 and senior level. My resources were stretched quite thinly and I was just trying to learn as much as possible from each coach I worked with and just searching for opportunities really. Back then, teams often only had one or two analysts, now they have four or five. Rowland Phillips gave me my big chance when he took me and Gruff Rees (Ospreys Backs Coach) to Aironi, who were then a new franchise. It was a good lesson for the future in how to stay positive and improve guys anyway I could with a limited budget.

PR: You have mixed working at clubs with working in a national team set-up, can you tell us how those two situations differ?

GV: Working for a club, your time is very regimented. You have your jobs for the week already scheduled and much more close contact with the players. At the national level, you have more opportunities to spread your wings and do different things and Gregor is very good at making the analysts feel like part of the coaching team and integrating them into coaching decisions.

PR: We have seen quite a few analysts make the move into coaching, is that something you have thought about?

GV: I want to keep getting more and more experience and learning. There’s obviously a World Cup that we’re building towards and just being involved with the coaches and querying stuff is great for my development but there obviously are more analysts moving into coaching roles. My mate Alistair Rogers was the All Blacks’ performance analyst and has now moved onto be defence coach at the Blues in Auckland. There is also Johann van Graan who was the Springboks’ Attack and Lineouts coach and now Munster Head Coach, he started out as a performance analyst, didn’t play professional rugby, but he was Heyneke Meyer’s right hand man at the Bulls and only surviving member after the World Cup.

Coaching is something that interests me, but I also have an interest in recruitment. Part of my role at the moment, and with Glasgow, was identifying different talent, not just local talent but global as well. At Glasgow, we didn’t have the budget of a Top 14 team so we needed to be a bit smarter and that’s something I enjoyed doing and something I’ll continue to do in my current role, helping out Edinburgh and Glasgow.

PR: Talking about recruitment, you were crucial in bringing Huw Jones to the attention of the Scottish set-up, can you tell us a bit more about that?

GV: I was watching some Varsity Cup games in South Africa, and he was playing for the UCT Ikey Tigers. He was very exciting and I did some background on him and found that he was born in Edinburgh. I got in touch and built up the profiles and some data sets around him and have been in contact with him since 2014. He got capped against Japan last year and obviously had a good Six Nations this year before getting injured, and has now signed for Glasgow, and that was just from watching Varsity Cup matches in South Africa.

PR: One of the biggest issues for anyone at home playing ‘fantasy rugby manager’ and thinking who they want their team to sign next year, is understanding how to compare different leagues. For example, if someone is tearing up the RFU Championship, are they likely to do the same thing in the English Premiership?

GV: It’s very hard to do that kind of direct comparison between leagues with just stats and videos. You need to speak to the coaches and other players who have played with them. You then need to look at inviting those players up for a trial and understanding how they will fit in at the level that you play.

There are still lots of variables, if someone is playing in South Africa on a bone dry pitch and they’re not physically the strongest, they might struggle in the PRO14 playing on a wet Friday night. You have to look at other attributes, not just pinpointing one part.

PR: If Planet Rugby breeched their impartiality and gave you a blank cheque, what would you do with that to change Scotland’s analysis set-up?

GV: I think I would probably hire a few more members of staff, not necessarily more analysts, but some data scientists who could generate some deeper questions by looking at the data. I would also look at virtual reality, I think that’s going to be a big game changer in the way that people learn and play the game in the next five years. At the moment, the NFL are still trying to get to grips with it, it can be used for fan engagement, but it can also be used for coaching players without the physical expenditure.

PR: I know that teams in the NFL are using it a lot for quarterbacks to show them how long they have to make decisions and what defences they are likely to face in the next game. Although the QB is a dynamic position, American Football is still a lot more static than rugby.

GV: That’s one of the challenges of our game. It’s a lot more complicated, a lot more chaotic than most sports. As a decision making tool I think it will be very useful, especially among younger players. It can generate questions and scenarios, so you can say, ‘if you see this picture, what should you do?’

PR: You mentioned earlier that there are now four or five performance analysts per team, can you give the PR readers an insight into what each one will do?

GV: A good coaching set-up would normally have one or maybe two academy analysts who are supporting the pro team and then maybe a data scientist, who is responsible for managing the data and distributing it. The other analysts would then be integrating with the coaches, for example, during the Lions tour, they had three analysts, each one responsible for different parts of the game, so kicking/attacking/defending etc. There’s becoming a greater demand for analysts, coaches want more video angles, more data, so there’s definitely been an increased in that area and there’s been a relatively quick growth in a short number of years.

PR: When I worked as a performance analyst in the English leagues, I had ended my playing career due to injury and wanted to stay involved and just turned up and said I thought I could do it, which is one way to get into it. Obviously there are better ways though, how would you recommend people get involved in performance analysis?

GV: Definitely look at the education system, there are lots of graduates from Cardiff Met who work with leading teams right the way around the world. There are a number of guys who have come from there, so that’s a good place to study, but there are lots of performance analysis courses popping up all around the country and sports science courses are also including performance analysis modules in them. I would also advise you to get as much knowledge and experience at a number of different levels, whether that’s work experience through your local pro team or lower level teams and understanding what the pro teams are doing and putting your own twist on that.

PR: You mentioned about the lower levels and teams further and further down the pyramid are doing some types of analysis. If you have someone in the seventh or eighth tier, who has a camera, what will be the best use of their time?

GV: I would encourage coaches to just get some video cut together, and you can use free video editing software to do this. You can cut the clips up into certain orders and let the players do their own analysis. That’s a big thing for me, getting players, especially younger players, to just watch themselves play, because a lot of people have never seen themselves run or play rugby so I would encourage that as a first step. We have specialist apps with high levels of security, but something as simple as putting a clip on Whatsapp or a player’s Facebook group will lead to big improvements in the short term.

PR: Last of all, what have been the biggest changes you’ve seen since you became a performance analyst?

GV: For me, the technology moves very quickly. For example, when I first started, I had a fifteen disc DVD burner and you would have to burn each player a copy because we couldn’t afford to give out hardware for each person. Now, you can film a game or a training session, code it live, and upload it to an app and less than ten minutes after the session ended the players have the analysis on their phone or their tablet. Drone footage is also really helpful, it gives players and coaches a totally different vantage point.

PR: Good luck in the Autumn

GV: Thank you!

by Sam Larner