How Peter Jackson is helping England kickers

England's George Ford lines up a kick. Photo / Getty

Peter Jackson, Russell Crowe and the The Hobbit are inadvertently helping England's bid to win the World Cup.

The tournament hosts who are also the All Blacks' arch enemy - especially if Ali Williams' French newspaper column is to be believed - are using Hollywood technology to train their goalkickers.

English rugby has money to burn and was always likely to have the cutting edge advantage. The Times reports that George Ford, Owen Farrell and Henry Slade hone their techniques with 3D technology used to make Gladiator, which starred Crowe, and Jackson's Lord of the Rings.

About 60 motion sensors attached to the players turn them into animations which allows extremely detailed scrutiny by coaches and scientists.

Sports science lecturer Neil Bezodis said: "It wows the players when they come in. They get a lot out of it and they feel they are having some fairly advanced stuff tone.

"There is very little scientific research on rugby kicking. In football there are hundreds of papers...in rugby it is 50 or 60 and in biomechanics it is probably less than ten.

"(At) university, we are assessed...on the impact we have. There could not be a bigger impact than trying to produce a World Cup winner."

Owen Farrell, left, gives it his best kick. Right, Peter Jackson used 3D technology on Lord of the Rings

Former England fullback Jon Callard instigated the research after learning that cricket used motion-sensors on fast bowlers for greater understanding of mechanics, movement and forces.

The rugby laboratory has a floor plate to measures force through the standing leg, which is said to be about three times body weight. Sensors are also placed on the ball and cameras record the kicks to create the animations. An emphasis is on emerging kickers and Callard said Slade was the prime example of a player thriving on the programme.

Callard said: "The value of goalkicking in the modern game is huge. It is proven that it comes down to goalkicking in the biggest tournaments."