Rugby: (a) union of space and time

The use of computer software as an aid to rugby, and sports coaching in general, is well established. Videoed sport is the most widely used form of raw data for sports analysis, though it is currently not being used to its full potential. Patterns of player movement and position, both for individuals and groupings of players, are important for understanding the complexities of professional team sports, and yet are not being adequately addressed. This paper outlines a project that aims to support coaching and/or commentary by measuring the similarity of video-derived spatio-temporal information, and enabling timely access to relevant video clips. Specifically, methods by which a user of spatio-temporal sports software can pose a query will be discussed. Two issues are examined: user interface form and how it enables efficient query construction; and powerful spatio-temporal representation techniques for rugby constructs (such as the pitch, players and amalgamations of players: team, scrum, line out, back line).