Rugby’s New Smart Ball: What Does it Track?

Rugby fans may have seen the news that Gilbert’s smart ball will be used in the upcoming Six Nations tournament, with more competitions for it to be included on the horizon too. But, what exactly will the ball bring to the game?

The ball itself, which has an RFID tracking chip that doesn’t alter the weight of the ball in any way, is able to offer instant 3D tracking and trajectories at cm-level accuracy, according to Gilbert.

The ball tracking technology is used to capture the fastest ball carriers, the longest, fastest passes and spin rate, and the hang-time of kicks in real-time. This will allow teams (and fans) to be able to see more detailed metrics with regard to when the ball is in possession versus being kicked, and everything that goes with it, such as pass efficiency, reload time, and spiral power.

Some of these more detailed kicking metrics will include distance to the corner flag (when kicks for a lineout are performed), the highest kicks, and which player executed the longest kick of the game.

More interestingly, the ball also features forward pass detection and offside player identification (if players are ahead of a kick), utilising 10 beacons that are placed around the field that sync with the ball in real time.

Ultimately, rugby’s artificially intelligent Smart Ball will hopefully provide fans with more information on-screen, clearer decisions, and reduced time delays, which we’re all for.

Check out an example of the metrics that will be provided in the video below: