His own experiences have led to former Masterton Marist, Wairarapa-Bush B and Auckland emerging players rugby coach Tony Hargood developing a coaching tool aimed at making the gathering of valuable statistical data a much less onerous task.
Hargood, now fulltime coaching director for the Auckland-based College Rifles club, has invented the
iCoach which can be used on iPhone and iPad to provide basically on-the-spot analysis on what is happening on the field of play.
"The whole idea is to make life easier for those at the grass roots of the game, those who don't have the technology or the time to spend long hours poring over the data which is so necessary to provide a fair summary of both individual and team performances," Hargood said. "Now they can have it at their fingertips."
Coaches at Super and test-match level may be as interested as those on the rungs below, for the iCoach will provide an immediacy of information which should appeal to the Graeme Henrys of the world.
"It should make the halftime team talk a lot more interesting, even for them."
Hargood said he literally used to spend days sifting through the wealth of stats from games and it was from there that the iCoach was born. "I used to sit there and think there had to be an easier way - and this it it."
The marketing of the iCoach won't be in full swing for a week or two but the interest has already been "mind-boggling" with more than 2000 hits on the website being taken after it was featured on a television programme on Monday evening.
