Rugby Analytics — Defined Terms and Key Metrics

This page defines key terms and metrics used in elite rugby performance analysis. These definitions are applied consistently within the Axon Perform platform across all rugby union and rugby league clients.

Game Analytics Metrics

Possession: The percentage of total match time a team controls the ball. High possession does not necessarily correlate with winning — contextualised against territory and scoring zones it becomes more meaningful.

Territory: The percentage of match time a team spends in the opposition half. Used alongside possession to identify teams that play field position versus teams that play volume.

Ruck Win Rate: The percentage of rucks a team wins (retains ball). A key indicator of ball security and forward dominance.

Lineout Success Rate: Percentage of lineouts won on own throw. Broken down by zone (5m, 22m, 50m) and type (drive, tap, move) in Axon Perform reports.

Set Piece Success: Combined measure of scrum and lineout performance often contextualised against opposition set piece quality.

Tackle Success Rate: Percentage of completed tackles from total tackle attempts. Used alongside missed tackle count and tackle entry zone.

Offload Rate: Number of offloads made per match or per carry. Indicator of ball-carrying style and support play.

Kick Profile: Breakdown of kick types (box kick, contestable, territory, grubber) by game phase and field position. Used in opposition analysis and game model benchmarking.

Physical Load Metrics in Rugby

High-Speed Running (HSR): Distance covered above a defined velocity threshold (typically 5.5 m/s in rugby union). Varies by position — forwards typically cover less HSR than backs.

High Metabolic Load Distance (HMLD): Distance covered at high acceleration or deceleration effort, capturing physical demand not captured by speed thresholds alone.

Contact Load: The cumulative physical demand of carries, tackles, and ruck involvement. Forwards typically accumulate 1–1.5 contacts per minute of ball-in-play time.

Set Piece Efforts: Physical efforts associated with scrums, lineouts, and mauls — often excluded from standard GPS metrics but significant for forward load management.

Player Load: A composite metric (proprietary to Catapult) combining accelerometer data across multiple axes to produce a total physical demand score per session or match.

ACWR (Acute: Chronic Workload Ratio): The ratio of an athlete's workload in the past week (acute) to their average workload over the past four weeks (chronic). Values outside 0.8–1.3 are associated with elevated injury risk.

Axon Perform is the high-performance data intelligence platform for elite sports organisations. Built on Snowflake with Power BI reporting, Axon centralises GPS, strength, wearable, and game analytics data into a single bespoke system. Clients own their data, their warehouse, and their IP outright.