The IRFU recently hosted Technology colleagues from the Unions of England, Australia, New Zealand, Wales and Scotland. Over several productive and informative sessions across three days, the group explored the potential to harness technology to shape the future of rugby and explored innovative ways to develop and grow the game. A number of experts joined the forum, including;

• Richard Ayers and Oscar Reynolds  of IMG who provided a thought-provoking briefing on future digital and data trends;
• Dave Mace of AWS delivered a session on how organisations use data to engage in different ways and measure return on investment from data programmes;
• Benny Cullen (Sport Ireland) gave a tutorial on communicating data to stakeholders;
• Bob Skinstad and Daniel Garsin (Elixirr), lead a session on embedding innovation thinking within sports organisations;
• Anji Udeshi and Ronan Donogher (World Rugby) provide their perspective on Fan Engagement and Game Day technology (respectively)
• Shane Whelan (B&I Lions) on the Lions’ digital and data programme for the 2025 tour to Australia.

Five Enterprise Ireland HPSU companies who are part of the IRFU and Enterprise Ireland Technology Innovation Partnership had the opportunity to pitch their sports tech innovations. This forum provided an excellent platform for Irish tech companies to showcase not only what their technology solutions can deliver for the Unions but also demonstrates the high level of unique sports tech companies emerging from Ireland. The forum created the opportunity to exchange information of common projects and challenges and identifying key projects for Union collaboration. Special thanks to the team from Accenture’s Dock Innovation Hub who hosted the group for one of the days and provided a unique environment to explore the use of AI and supported the group in identifying opportunities for knowledge sharing and collaboration. This initiative was supported by Enterprise Ireland and World Rugby. Scott Walker, IRFU Director of Strategy and Technology, commented,

“As Unions we are all trying to enhance the game of Rugby and work on similar challenges. The collaboration of the Unions allows us to combine our knowledge and expertise to jointly develop and transform the game through technology. I would like to thank all the organisers and contributors who helped deliver such an enlightening and productive session”.