How hawk-eye will make an impact at the Rugby World Cup

Hawk-eye will make its competitive debut at the Rugby World Cup. Here is how it will make its presence felt during the tournament.

Rugby has often embraced technology, acknowledging what it can do for the sport.

Teams now utilise GPS to monitor fitness and track player movement; coaches can see how their game plan is working; and officials can refer to the television match official (TMO) for assistance in potentially contentious calls.

Soon, the officials will be able to make use of hawk-eye to ensure as much accuracy as possible.

The hawk-eye system will offer match officials new capabilities and angles when reviewing match footage.

It will, for example, add split-screen and zoom features to exisiting camera angles so that they can get a better view of incidents and review different angles simultaneously.

Meanwhile, if a ball is trapped in a ruck or maul, officials will be able to zoom in to see if the ball has been grounded.

Try scoring incidents will certainly benefit from the introduction of this technology.

Rugby World Cup 2007 final could have turned out quite differently had this technology been in place.

English winger Mark Cueto crossed the whitewash, but after an extensive review he was ruled to have glanced the touchline with his boot.

One angle seems to suggest that he grounds the ball while his foot in the air, while another shows his foot grazing the touchline.

Unfortunately for the TMO, he could only watch one angle after the other and try to determine whether Cueto had scored or not from that. Hawk-eye will allow TMOs to watch incidents like this from multiple angles at once.

This incident is still the subject of debate for some. Rolland recently reviewed footage of that fateful day and admits that the team of officials debated the decision afterwards.

He didn’t commit to saying whether they made the right call or not, but says that Burger should have been given a yellow card.

But it’s not only in incidents like this that hawk-eye will be able to prove its worth. Hawk-eye will also have a positive impact for the medical side of the sport.

Concussion is a hot topic in rugby, and hawk-eye will give medical professionals a greater understanding of the condition.

Hawk-eye will allow them to monitor off-the-ball play, and will give them multiple angles and close ups of incidents, which will be useful when assessing a possible concussion.

Not only that, but it should ensure that all possible concussions are caught immediately.

Many will remember 2015’s Six Nations match between England and Wales in which George North was knocked out twice.

He was assessed for concussion after the first incident, but not the second, which looked arguably worse. Wales Rugby came under fire after the incident as North was allowed to stay on the pitch.

Hawk-eye’s introduction will improve the accuracy of calls, though some fans may still debate this; will reduce the amount of down-time when decisions are being made; and should ensure that player welfare is a priority.

Hawk-eye was on hand when England played France last week, but wasn’t called into action.

It has performed well in trials and will make its first appearance in a major tournament when the Rugby World Cup gets underway.

The Rugby World Cup opens on September 18 with England taking on Fiji.