KEY POINTS:
A rugby nut from Rangiora with no tertiary qualifications in the IT world is behind the cutting edge computer service the All Blacks value so highly for test matches.
But coach Graham Henry would not be without the statistical and visual support he gets from Andrew Sullivan at
each test.
The man named Digit by previous coach John Mitchell is no madcap character who produces inventions like Q did for James Bond. However, he does have all the answers Henry and the players need.
You will find Sullivan sitting near the coaching staff during each test, with his camera trained on events on the park.
That footage is sent to a laptop which Sullivan is coding as well.
"I push a button and it tags a task and we have the ability to go back and replay that footage at any point of the game and at any speed," said Sullivan. "It could show how one side of the scrum is going, what is happening to the defences, who is doing what in the lineouts. So that is my main job during the game.
"I also have another computer which delays the live feed so the coaches can have another look at the preceding piece of action. Those screens are serviced from the ground."
However, the third computer screen used by the staff is connected to the internet and employees of the Verusco computer firm in Palmerston North, who collate statistics throughout the game.
"They are coding all the information, doing all the donkey work. I think there are about 10 of them doing that during the game and each is coding a specific area of the game," Sullivan said.
"That information comes to us via the internet and we have an interface which puts up graphs so it can show our tackle accuracy, our work on the gainline, where the opposition are targeting moves, breaches of play. It is basic stuff, like you would see on TV but we create our own matrix."
Sullivan has been doing this work for five years since he started with Canterbury. He was used by the All Blacks at the last World Cup, had a spell away but is now back as video analyst through to the end of the next World Cup campaign.
"It is a dream to help New Zealand reclaim that trophy," he said.
Away from his work, Sullivan plays the occasional social game in the front row for Saracens, the renamed Rangiora club. When he had more time, he played lock for the senior club side and worked on understanding the world of computers.
"Everything I know is self-taught," Sullivan confessed. "I have been to a lot of courses but I found I was having to teach the person who was tutoring me. I am lucky. I can pick up a book and find out all I need to know or just do it."
Sullivan was a systems engineer for a computer firm in Christchurch who installed networks for corporate clients, including the Canterbury Rugby Union. The connection was made and Sullivan changed employers. His rugby knowledge and computer passion was an ideal fit.
"Knowing about rugby is massive because the coaches will talk to me about a particular task and I know exactly what they mean, what they are after, what they want."
Sullivan designed the live statistics concept in 2002 before the last World Cup and said that changed what the coaches could do during matches.
"You could see straight away the trends and what was happening. We now have our own key performance indicators and we have designed the system so we can see how we match up to those during the game."
So is there stress on Sullivan during a test? There is when the internet connection drops out, as it does more frequently in Europe, and 30-second updates do not appear.
"I have learned to know what to look for as signs of trouble and can update it pretty quickly," Sullivan said, "but there was a meltdown in Lyon and I had to reboot the computer, then reboot the programme that holds the stats and reconnect the internet and that is five or 10 minutes.
"Crazy things happen, you just have to deal with it."
Once the game is over, Sullivan's next task starts. He is lucky to get to bed before dawn after viewing all the tapes of the test, collating the data and then transferring that information to 25 laptop computers in the squad.
That job has to be done by the morning after the test, so the coaches and players can start their reviews and preparation for the next international.
The next day, Sullivan delivers even more detailed information on the opposition, their strategies, individual All Black performances and trends.
Sullivan says it is difficult to know where the All Blacks computer analysis is compared to other countries because there is so much secrecy.
"I think we are on a par and maybe there are a couple of things we are doing which others are not. I believe we are well up there but the challenge is staying ahead," he said.
"People come to you all the time with ideas but we have made the decision to focus on what we have and make it superior."
