Menlo Park, California and London, England October 14, 2024 – Kitman Labs, the global enterprise SaaS platform providing the only single, centralised operating system for performance intelligence in sports, has today announced a new multi-year, multi-partner agreement with the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the national governing body for rugby union in England and Premiership Rugby, organisers of the leading men’s domestic competition in England.
Kitman Labs will continue their work across English rugby union with the senior, pathway (U20 & U18), and GB7 men’s and women’s national teams and professional match officials. The RFU previously deployed Kitman Labs’ Performance Optimisation Solution in the Intelligence Platform (iP) in 2023 and will now add the company’s Performance Medicine Solution.
The expansion of the partnership now sees the Performance Medicine Solution in the Intelligence Platform rolled out to senior teams and academies across Premiership Rugby and Premiership Women’s Rugby, women’s pathway (Player Development Groups) and the men’s Championship, for the first time.
The Intelligence Platform will be utilised across Premiership Rugby, Premiership Women’s Rugby, men’s championship and international game, unifying and integrating all data in a single integrated platform to support clinical governance, injury surveillance and to optimise player management. The operating system will power shared intelligence – driving collaboration and supporting the seamless dissemination of insights and analytics between club and country. Coaches, practitioners and stakeholders alike will now have a real-time, 360-degree view of each player to support monitoring of load management, inform training plans and game strategy, preparation for international duties and return-to-club play to optimise both player welfare and performance outcomes.
The implementation of the Kitman Labs system is a core player welfare and management pillar of the recently announced Men’s Professional Game Partnership (MPGP), between the RFU, Premiership Rugby and the players union, the Rugby Players Association, which has a vision to create ‘world-leading English teams and thriving professional leagues delivered through a fully optimised performance systems in partnership with our players.’
“The insights and analytics made possible by centralising player medical and performance data streams are essential in helping to advance the health, welfare and performance of our players. With this technology, our coaches, medical and performance teams will have the data and intelligence necessary to inform decision-making across every department. In addition, by making this system available across the men’s and women’s elite domestic game, we will be able to work collaboratively at a scale to better understand training loads, injury prevention and treatment effectiveness to ensure all players can perform at their best while helping to protect them from injury and illness” said Simon Kemp, Medical Services Director, RFU
“Introducing a 360-degree view of combined medical and performance data for all Premiership Rugby players will allow optimal player management to be at the forefront of the English game. The integration of key data streams via the Intelligence Platform will further enhance player welfare and performance decisions via consistent and seamless data sharing between Premiership clubs and England teams. This will include providing data to underpin new Individual Development Plans (IDPs) for each player as part of the new MPGP agreement. The Intelligence Platform will also provide clubs their own flexibility to support club medical, performance and coaching requirements, empowering practitioners to support the highest levels of decision-making related to player safety and performance.” said Matt Cross, Head of Science and Medical Operations, Premiership Rugby.
“We couldn’t be more excited to renew and expand our partnership with the RFU and Premiership Rugby. The expansion across the men’s and women’s domestic teams will help provide all stakeholders with a complete, objective picture of player health and readiness. The Intelligence Platform will be a formidable tool for all stakeholders in helping to reduce (and understand) injury risk, manage player workload and enhance performance at every level of the sport,” said Stephen Smith, CEO and Founder of Kitman Labs.
Kitman Labs has an established track record of working with top teams, leagues and regulatory bodies across a variety of sports, including rugby, football, basketball and American football. The company’s technology is in use by teams in some of the world’s most elite sporting organisations, including the IRFU, NFL, NBA, NWSL, Premier League, MLS and NCAA.
iP: Intelligence Platform represents the industry’s largest dataset of talent, performance, and medical data for all stages of the athlete lifecycle.
About Kitman Labs:
Kitman Labs is the world’s leading sports science and performance intelligence company. Kitman Labs powers iP: Intelligence Platform, the advanced operating system used by the largest and most innovative leagues, teams and regulatory bodies in elite Sport and Defense. Our software solutions – Performance Medicine, Performance Optimisation, Coaching & Development and League Operations – have been designed to optimise human performance; enhance overall health, wellness and longevity; reduce injury risk; and drive operational efficiencies and value. Kitman Labs is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Dublin.
About Rugby Football Union (RFU):
The RFU is the national governing body for rugby union in England. The organisation aims to enrich lives, introduce more people to rugby union and develop the sport for future generations. The goal is to achieve this by strengthening and uniting rugby union in England and producing consistently winning England teams.
The RFU is a members’ organisation of professional and amateur rugby clubs, referee societies and Constituent Bodies (geographic or national unions of clubs) that reinvests all profits back into the sport.
About Premiership Rugby:
Premiership Rugby is the organisation that manages the top league in English club rugby – Gallagher Premiership Rugby.
It acts for its shareholder clubs in all major commercial and strategic negotiations with media and sponsorship partners of the league, as well as with other rugby governing bodies.
Premiership Rugby is also responsible for key areas of governance of top-flight competitions, including the Salary Cap Framework, Minimum Standards Criteria and Code of Conduct, as well as managing the Gallagher Premiership Rugby competition and the Premiership Rugby Cup, both of which are televised live by TNT Sports.
Media Contacts:
Rugby Football Union:
Amber Lewis
Corporate Communications Director
Email amberlewis@rfu.com
Kitman Labs
International:
The PHA Group
kitmanlabs@thephagroup.com