Number of challenges when it comes to stats breakdown

By CHRIS BARTON

"Look at the scoreboard. Take a photo, take a photo."

The Welsh fans were clearly excited. Wales had been leading since the 45th minute and, in the 53rd, kicked another penalty. The All Black supporters were stunned. It was 37-33 - to Wales. Was the unthinkable going to happen?

In the 61st minute Carlos Spencer partially redeemed himself for his tackling reticence with a scything run and scored.

The game had turned. But in the heat of the moment the points were given to Wales and the scoreboard read 42-33. There wasn't time for a photo because the board quickly went to black and a few minutes later came up with the right numbers - 38-37 to the All Blacks. Phew.

The brief blunder must have been an "oh ****" moment for Unisys' World Cup project director, Antony Harrowell, who was overseeing data input in the statisticians' box. Moments, he says, that are inevitable when live data, human error and technology collide.

The statisticians' job looks stressful. Two cover each game, processing information from watching the game itself, listening to the live commentary and watching a TV screen. Somehow the pair enter about 2500 statistics during the 80 minutes by tapping with a stylus on a templated electronic tablet which lists team members, a diagram of the ground, and other symbols for the huge array of stats.

The tablet "inputs" are then tied into software to calculate and present the match statistics such as the score, possession, territory, substitutions, lineouts, rucks and mauls, turnovers and so on. The information, updated every 10 seconds, is then fed out to the outside broadcast van to be displayed as TV graphics, to Rugbyworldcup.com for its live "Match Tracker" section, to the media centre information system, as text messages to mobile phones and to the ground scoreboard.

When the cup first started there were some glitches but it now mostly works fine.

Unisys built the scoring and information system for the International Rugby Board in exchange for publicity during the tournament. For several million dollars' worth of work, it gets its name on some of the hoardings around the grounds and, for a total of 15 seconds every game, the Unisys logo appears on TV feeds worldwide when scores are shown.

Statistics play a huge part in the media centre information system, also built and run by Unisys, which has a historical database comprising 6500 players of about 200 rugby teams and every international match played dating back to 1871. The project, which aims to be "the most comprehensive rugby database of all time", has taken three years and will be kept up to date by the IRB.

Although the site has an enormous amount of information, including match statistics, live commentary of each game and delayed video coverage, it is missing a vital ingredient - analysis based on the wealth of stats available. Rugby aficionados should check out Tracey Nelson's match statistics at haka.co.nz to see what's possible. Her missed-tackles stats and analysis of how Wales got their tries is illuminating.

But there is no doubt that Rugbyworldcup.com, built by Unisys under contract to the IRB, is attracting huge numbers. As of Sunday it had 371 million hits and 3.4 terabytes of data had been transferred from the site. The hit statistic is a bit meaningless because it counts every "get request" on the site - which means it counts all the page elements (probably 30-50 per page). Users come from 207 countries. Britain leads the online pack with 26 per cent of the website sessions, followed by Australia at 19 per cent and the US at 11 per cent. New Zealand - spoilt for choice with TV coverage - ranks about 8th with 5 per cent.

* Chris Barton was a guest of Unisys when he saw Wales nearly beat the All Blacks in Sydney.

Vital statistics

World Cup players:

Tallest: Luke Gross (US) and Simon Shaw (England) - 2.06m.

Shortest: Earl Va'a (Samoa) - 1.66m.

Heaviest: Joeli Veitayaki (Fiji) - 136kg.

Lightest: Peter Stringer (Ireland) - 70kg.

Top points-scorer of all time: Neil Jenkins (Wales) - 87 matches, 1049 points.

First test played:

England v Scotland, March 27, 1871, at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, watched by 4000. Scotland won with two tries and one conversion. England managed one try and no conversions.

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