Verusco

Template:Use dmy dates Verusco Technologies is a company based in Palmerston North, New Zealand. They supply video analysis software and statistics to rugby union teams, including the Super Rugby franchise the Blue Bulls, most South African professional teams and other teams in France, Japan, and Australia.

While involved with analysis of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, they discovered that the New Zealand national rugby union team, the "All Blacks," made 57 tackles to Frances' 269, and they had 66 percent possession and 60 percent territory. The playing time, or the time the ball was in play, was the longest of any game Verusco had ever recorded.

The company has analysed 1,500 games since 2000.

History

Founding

Verusco Technologies grew out of a video and statistical analysis system developed during the 1990s by George Serrallach, a lecturer in the biotechnology department at Massey University in Palmerston North who had previously built a similar analysis system for association football. Serrallach was introduced to rugby union by All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith in 1996, after which the analysis system began to be adapted for the sport. With the assistance of Massey University lecturer David Hadfield, who helped turn the system into a commercial product, the business was incorporated that year as AnalySport Limited. It was renamed Verusco Technologies in 2000, a name said to derive from a word meaning "truth".

Growth

From 2000, Verusco held a licensing agreement to provide performance analysis to the All Blacks and New Zealand Rugby, a relationship that continued across the 2003, 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups. At its peak in the mid-2000s, the company employed around 55 staff and had an annual turnover of approximately NZ$3 million, analysing about 190 matches a year by 2005, including around 60 international tests and, in 2007 alone, 286 matches. By 2006 the company was supplying analysis to 11 of the 14 Super Rugby franchises. Its principal product, TryMaker, was offered in two forms: a "Pro Elite" service coded by Verusco's own analysts, and a "Plus" version that allowed clients to code matches themselves.

2007 Rugby World Cup

During the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter-final between New Zealand and France in Cardiff, Verusco's analysis recorded that the All Blacks had made only 57 tackles to France's 269, missing 16 tackles to France's 62. New Zealand won 162 rucks – the highest total recorded at the tournament, against 35 for France – and held 66 per cent of possession and 60 per cent of territory, yet were penalised eleven times to France's two, the lowest number of penalties conceded by a team at a Rugby World Cup since the tournament began in 1987. The match also produced 45 minutes and 13 seconds of continuous playing time, the longest Verusco had recorded up to that point. France won the match 20–18.

Acquisition by Prozone

In 2013, the company was acquired by Prozone.

External links

• Template:Official website

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