Stat attack by Computacenter

Computacenter, the official data and statistics partner of the RBS 6 Nations Championship will once again be recording all the action live from the greatest annual rugby tournament in the world.

Over the last four years Computacenter has worked closely with the media, referees and team coaches to establish the most comprehensive rugby union statistics service in the game. All match analysis and player performance data is tracked live at the stadium by top grade international referees past and present. Seated in the TV gantry, the callers (referees such as Fred Howard and Nigel Yates) log and transmit actions of the game to a data input operator who is positioned in the outside broadcast facilities vehicle. Alongside the main caller are two additional referees recording individual player actions for each team. Every pass, tackle, kick, hit and miss is entered into a real-time cumulative database from which reports are compiled and distributed to the media.

During each match Computacenter provides the Six Nations TV broadcasters (including BBC, France Television, RTE and La7) with a comprehensive graphics and on-screen statistics service. A live feed of match statistics is also provided to BBC Interactive for their interactive rugby application.

Detailed post-match stats and analysis are provided to participating unions and team coaches as well as to over 300 journalists from the local, national and European press. Alex Butler, Sports Editor of The Sunday Times commented "Computacenter provide us with an efficient and professional service and are continually developing new ideas. The use of statistics supports our editorial coverage and helps to increase our readers' understanding of the game."

Combining new ideas with an innovative use of technology, Computacenter is constantly working to evolve the existing match data to provide a deeper analysis of the game for rugby audiences across Europe.