Vodafone to become a Principal Partner of Scottish Rugby in multi-year deal

The Vodafone PLAYER.Connect platform is already used by Vodafone’s partners including Wales Women, the Armed Forces Women’s Rugby Team, Celtic Challenge teams Brython Thunder and Gwalia Lightning and the women’s rugby teams at Edinburgh, Cardiff and Durham universities.  

The partnership will also see Vodafone harness the power of its reliable, award-winning network* and connectivity solutions to bring fans across the nation closer to the action. This has previously included the trial of its revolutionary 5G Fan App with the Welsh Rugby Union at Principality Stadium. The app uses augmented reality (AR) technology and Vodafone’s superfast 5G to enhance the fan experience by allowing users to track player stats and explore live elements of the game by simply holding their phones up to the pitch. Vodafone will work with Scottish Rugby on similar solutions across both Hive Stadium and Scottish Gas Murrayfield.  

Scotland Women will open the partnership by competing in the newly named Vodafone Series, which includes two Tests against Wales Women on Friday 6 September and Fijiana Women on Saturday 14 September. Both Wales and Fijiana are also sponsored by Vodafone, as part of its broader commitment to growing the women’s game. 

Speaking about the partnership, Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director, Vodafone UK said: “We’re really proud to be a new Principal Partner of Scottish Rugby’s Men’s and Women’s teams, who join our growing portfolio of partnerships with some of the UK’s most iconic teams and events.

“As The Nation’s Network, we’re committed to connecting our customers to the people, businesses and places that matter to them. Whether it’s using the power of our 5G to elevate the experience for rugby fans or our landmark Vodafone PLAYER.Connect platform to assist the players. We’re hugely excited to be working with the Scotland teams and to be further supporting the growth of women’s rugby in the UK.”  

Chris Healy, Commercial Director, Scottish Rugby, said: “Welcoming Vodafone in as a Principal Partner and back of shirt partner for Scotland Men and Women is fantastic. They are an established global brand that we are delighted to work with, and we are excited to see the tangible benefits from the partnership. Having a partner who is as passionate as we are about developing our pathway and, with the off-field support of our players, the use of the Vodafone PLAYER.Connect app is amazing.

“Next week, we will all be supporting Scotland Women at Hive Stadium in the Vodafone Series, ahead of WXV 2, quickly followed by four Internationals at Scottish Gas Murrayfield for Scotland Men, so it is an exciting time for Vodafone to join us and I am looking forward to seeing how our partnership can grow over the coming years.”

Rachel Malcolm, Scotland Women’s Captain, said: “It’s a really exciting time for Scottish Rugby to be partnering with Vodafone. To have such an established brand supporting us is especially important at such a pivotal moment in our season.

“In particular, their investment into the rugby pathways and regional centres is so important for the next generation of talent here in Scotland and we’re really excited to see how this helps our game progress and how we show up on the world stage next year.”

The Vodafone Series kicks off a busy autumn of rugby for both teams, with Scotland Women travelling to South Africa to compete in the WXV 2 and Scotland Men playing four international tests at home in the 2024 Autumn Nations Series.

The partnership further reinforces Vodafone’s ongoing investment across the country, which has already seen 5G brought to major Scottish airports, universities and cities as well as 4G coverage successfully introduced across rural communities through the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme. And with society relying more and more on connectivity, Vodafone has also committed to providing 5G Standalone (SA) technology to nearly 90% of Scotland by 2034 as part of its proposed merger with Three UK.

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Notes to Editors

About Vodafone PLAYER.Connect 

Vodafone PLAYER.Connect is a first-of-its-kind performance dashboard that uses cutting edge mobile-first technology to allow athletes’ data to be viewed, analysed and acted upon by medical and coaching staff instantly, from anywhere in the world. 

Benefits of Vodafone PLAYER.Connect include: 

• The ability to view and compare all data for any given individual across a team, allowing for fully contextualised decisions that consider everything from physical fitness and performance on the pitch to sleep and recovery off it. For example, a team-wide drop-off in training performance could indicate an issue with adapting to altitude, rather than individual shortcomings. 

• The ability to track performance and welfare across multiple days, weeks and months, allowing better optimisation of workload and preparation. For example, a player could already have played longer during an early tournament game meaning they need to focus on recovery rather than training during non-game days, ensuring they’re in the best possible condition for their next fixture. 

• The ability to monitor player welfare 24/7, on and off the court, allowing for better support of both mental and physical wellbeing. For example, a change in a player’s sleeping habits is often an indicator of a shift in their mental health, allowing coaches to provide support. 

Full data that can be inputted into Vodafone PLAYER.Connect by athletes includes:  

• Readiness to train 

• Sleep 

• Mood & Energy 

• Anthropometrics (Bodyweight, height etc) 

• Health & Sickness  

• Medication 

• Injury screening 

• Muscle soreness screening 

• Training load 

• Fatigue