Apple's latest video ad outlines why the iPad and MacBook Pro are necessary tools for England Rugby's performance analysis team.
Time and time again, the iPhone has proven itself as a useful tool for sporting events, with Major League Soccer already using the device to record matches.
Even the Maracana Stadium is set to make use of an iPhone-powered offside camera system in 2026. Still, the iPhone isn't the only piece of Apple hardware that continues to see use in sports.
In a new video ad, released on Monday, Apple highlighted how England Rugby utilizes its products. The advertisement, dubbed "Apple at Play," was made available via the Apple UK YouTube channel and features England Rugby's Senior Team Analyst Joe Lewis.
The iPad, MacBook Pro, and Apple Studio Display are used to view matches in real time, from seven different angles. This lets England Rugby capture an enormous amount of data points related to player movement, including how many tackles a player has made, or how many they've missed, among other things.
"Within the box, we have two analysts, five coaches, seven video angles, hundreds and thousands of data points," explains Lewis. "All the seven laptops are linked up. Therefore, the coaches can see on their laptop what we're clipping."
England Rugby's analysts use Apple hardware to record possessions, line-outs, scrums, and so on, for every game. iPads are then used to draw the players' attention to certain things. During half-time breaks, key clips are shown to players, offering them a new sense of perspective.
"As a player, it's so important, because you've got the feel of the game, but you don't quite see it from a bird's eye view, said George Ford, who plays as fly half.
Apple's latest ad is arguably part of a larger push toward sports-related content. The company has already made Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball games available to Apple TV subscribers in the United States at no extra charge. The same is true for Formula 1 races
There's also a dedicated Apple Sports app, along with the "F1" movie"F1" movie, and talk of a possible sequel, all of which show Apple's dedication to sports fans.
