There is the visible side, the bodies colliding, the balloons flying. This Wednesday afternoon, the Blues, winners of Australia (30-29) two weeks ago at the Stade de France then South Africa (30-26) last Saturday in Marseille, engaged in a intense opposition on the main lawn of the Marcoussis training center (Essonne) for the last meeting of the autumn tour, Sunday in Toulouse (2 p.m.) against Japan.
And then there is the hidden side. The one that grows, grows and grows under computer screens. The one who measures, collects, classifies and translates into figures everything that happens on a rugby pitch. Data science, as they say, is now at the heart of any high-level sports project. And the XV of France is at the forefront in this area. Its collaboration with the company SAS France, world leader in analytics and statistical data, dates back to 2020 but it was formalized this Wednesday in Marcoussis, in the presence of its boss, Jean-François Sebastian and coach Fabien Galthié, in particular .
While preserving the secret of a cuisine that plays an increasingly important role in the development of the feasts offered by the Blues, the two men gave some details on this association born of their meeting several years ago, on its modus operandi, and its purpose. “The basic question is how to train better to be better during the match, explains Fabien Galthié. We created a sort of additional resource. This pushed us very far in the field of possibilities. We started to think without forbidding ourselves by answering the only questions that matter: how can we beat our opponent? What did the teams that won and those that failed. »
“In a match, I am not connected to anything. I watch, I listen. »
The role of SAS France is to collect the tens of thousands of statistical data, to sort them and to provide them to the staff of the Blues in the form of information, indications as soon as a request is formulated. Touch, scrum, footwork… All sectors are reviewed and arranged in twelve modules. “For three years that we have been at the head of the XV of France, we have invented our own model, adds Galthié. We started with a clean sheet. We move forward in project mode, not in hierarchical mode. The priority is collective intelligence. We use individual data, but above all this tool allows us to go very far in collective analysis. Rugby is a sport where everything changes every three seconds. We work a lot on these moments of transition. »
The figures, provided in particular by a GPS chip embedded in the jerseys, go up and register in a database containing 1438 matches (XV of France, U20 and Top 14 included). Connected balloons and connected mouth guards also broaden the scope of investigations. “Be careful, it is not the figures that direct us but we who direct the figures, launches Fabien Galthié. Moreover, on a match, I am not connected to anything. I watch, I listen, I am at the heart of the environment, there is not a single number that impacts me. Decisions are made with our intuition and our know-how. Science is there to answer questions.