New Zealand Rugby has renewed its partnership with sports technology company VX Sport.
The new deal will run until 2020, with VX Sport to be an official supplier for all NZR national teams.
VX Sport specialises in collecting athletes’ physical data via wearable devices and first started working with New Zealand’s men’s national team in 2009. The new partnership will allow the company to expand its involvement across NZR’s various national teams and into different levels of the body’s high-performance system.
“VX Sport’s technology is trusted and proven over a long period of time and is a crucial tool in providing feedback on athletes’ volume and intensity of training,” NZR’s head of high performance Mike Anthony said.
“VX Sport’s system provides raw data including heartrate, speed, and distance, which allows strength and conditioning staff and coaches to make better informed decisions around player workloads throughout a season.”
VX Sport co-founder and sport performance director, Jamie Tout, added: “We are pleased that NZR has chosen to partner with VX Sport in what was a very competitive process. Women’s rugby is an obvious growth area and being able to work with the Black Ferns and Black Ferns Sevens recently has been immensely satisfying, particularly watching their success at the Women’s Rugby World Cup and Commonwealth Games.
“Because VX Sport provides wearable devices to a number of Investec Super Rugby, provincial union and secondary school teams, we are fast approaching a time when a player’s welfare and performance can be actively managed as they progress their rugby career.”